MoA Technology raises £35 million in Series B round
Plant genetics company MoA Technology has raised £35 million in its Series B funding round.
The Oxford University spin-out has developed a range of bespoke proprietary technology to generate potential candidates for use as herbicides.
The new investment will advance their pipeline of new herbicides with novel modes of action to solve weed resistance through to the next development stage.
The financing round was co-led by new investor Lansdowne Partners, one of Britain’s leading asset managers, together with existing investors, Oxford Science Enterprises, an investment company created to found, fund and build businesses through its unique partnership with the University of Oxford; and Parkwalk Advisors, the largest EIS growth fund manager focused on university spinouts.
Existing investors BGF Investments, Bits x Bites Growth Fund, IP Group and University of Oxford also participated.
MoA has developed a unique plant-led approach to revolutionise the discovery process for the new modes of action that can solve the resistance challenge.
MoA’s three proprietary platforms, Galaxy, Target, and Select, uniquely utilise miniaturised living plants in combination with cutting-edge techniques in genetics, phenotypic analysis and data analytics to rapidly screen hundreds of thousands of natural and synthetic chemistries to find those that work differently.
In its first two years, the approach has already yielded an order of magnitude increase in the discovery rate of these novel interactions between chemistry and plant biology which have the potential to control weeds in safe new ways.
Virginia Corless, CEO at MoA, said: “We are pleased to have completed this funding round, which will enable us to accelerate the development of the most promising leads in our abundant pipeline and deliver the novel safe and sustainable products necessary for us all – farmers, consumers, anyone with an interest in the food we grow and eat – to be able to count on a safe, reliable, and resilient agricultural industry for the future.
"We are excited to welcome the new investment from Lansdowne and are grateful for the continued support from our existing investors. ”
Hadyn Parry, chairman at MoA, added: “Global agriculture needs a new Green Revolution if we are to feed the world sustainably.
"Being able to control weeds is critical to both yield and the cost of production in most crops and new herbicide modes of action are essential. It’s very exciting to see MoA starting to play its part in this new revolution by advancing so far in such little time.”
The investment will enable MoA to advance its portfolio of leads through to the next stage of development and to further expand its prolific high-throughput in vivo screening platforms.
Martin Fiennes, Principal at Oxford Science Enterprises and Non-Executive Director at MoA, said: “There has been tremendous progress developing the mode of action discovery platform since we helped MoA spin-out of Oxford’s Plant Sciences Department.
"It is very exciting to see the output from the platforms now begin to show the new modes of action for effective and clean herbicides that farmers so desperately need.”
Cassie Doherty at Parkwalk Advisors and Non-Executive Director at MoA, added: “Parkwalk is excited to offer its continued support to MoA, helping advance the development of their novel technology that is so critical to farmers across the UK and globally.
"We have always felt that MoA’s relentless effort to strive for global food security will enable a better future."
