University of Oxford spinout Wild Bioscience has raised $60m (£44.65m) in a Series A funding round for its AI crop breeding technology.
The startup specialises in crop genetics, having developed an AI-powered approach to improving the productivity, resilience and sustainability of agricultural produce.
The firm’s internal platform can identify promising genetic improvements from different species of plant to guide precision breeding strategies to create superior crop varieties.
“Advancing agriculture has limitless potential to help people and the planet. So to achieve meaningful, scalable impact, we need the right investors who are truly aligned with that big vision,” said Dr Ross Hendron, co-founder and chief executive of Wild Bio.
Hendron started work on Wild Bioscience at the University of Oxford alongside Prof. Steve Kelly. The team spun out the business in 2021 and have since grown it to a team of 30 based in their Oxford headquarters.
The funding round was led by the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), a research group within both Oxford and the University of Southern California founded by Oracle founder and billionaire Larry Ellison.
“Wild Bio is using AI to better understand the lessons learned over millions of years of evolution encoded in plant genomes,” Ellison said.
“Those insights combined with precision breeding has enabled Wild Bio to develop new varieties of crops with both higher yields and climate resilience.
“The ultimate goal is to grow these new crop varieties on a commercial scale and help provide food security around the world. EIT is committed to working with Wild Bio to reach this goal.”
Additional participation in the funding round came from Oxford Science Enterprises, Braavos Capital and the University of Oxford.