Oxford's Wild Bioscience expands Milton Park base

Wild Bioscience, a company that specialises in high-yielding, climate-resilient crop varieties, has expanded its base at Milton Park.

The Oxford company expanded its footprint at the site by 5,000 sq ft, meaning it now covers 9,000 sq ft of Milton Park.

The agritech company joined the Park in 2021 as a spinout from Oxford University and now employs over 20 staff. This expansion of its workspace will facilitate the planned doubling of the company's workforce.

Ross Hendron, Co-founder and CEO at Wild Bioscience, said: “We’re at an exciting time in our growth journey as we’re now getting crops into the field for the first time – asking growers what they think of our new solutions. Getting our product into field trials is as significant as a drug discovery company getting to clinical trials.

“We raised £12m in seed capital in 2021 and we’re planning a Series A funding round next year, which will be a trigger for yet more expansion. As an ambitious startup, we need to capitalise on these growth opportunities, but because of the very nature of developing and growing large crop plants, we need a lot of space in order to do this.

“It was challenging to find suitable lab space in Oxford but we were attracted to Milton Park due to its single ownership, creating a giant incubator with the flexibility for companies to grow. This, and the Park’s exceptional facilities, made it an ideal fit for our unconventional requirements that include a unique combination of laboratory and crop propagation capabilities.”

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Wild Bioscience aims to boost the yields of globally important crops such as soy, maize and wheat under increasingly challenging conditions driven by climate change.

The company's ''wild-enhanced crops'' are designed to support bigger and more efficient harvests, blending molecular and computational biology to understand how evolution has already improved plant biology in wild species.

Tom Booker, Commercial Manager at MEPC Milton Park, said: “It’s a pleasure to be able to accommodate Wild Bioscience’s growth plans. As the UK’s largest science, technology and business community under single ownership and through our innovative ten-day planning arrangement, we’re committed to creating a supportive ecosystem that enables occupiers to scale up quickly.

“We’re excited for Wild Bioscience to further benefit from this environment and look forward to supporting them by creating the bespoke space they need.”

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