Agricultural technology startup Wild Bioscience has secured £45 million in Series A funding led by the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), the research organisation founded by Larry Ellison, chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle.
The investment — joined by existing backers Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE), Braavos Capital, and the University of Oxford — will fuel the company’s mission to revolutionise global agriculture through AI-driven genetic discovery and precision breeding.
Ellison, one of the world’s most influential technology entrepreneurs, who recently committed an extra £890m to the Oxford science institute, said his institute’s partnership with Wild Bio aligns with his long-term vision of harnessing data and science to solve humanity’s most urgent challenges.
“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, have enabled Wild Bio to develop new crop varieties with both higher yields and climate resilience. The ultimate goal is to grow these crops at commercial scale and help provide food security around the world.”
Founded in 2021 by Dr Ross Hendron and Professor Steve Kelly at the University of Oxford, Wild Bioscience deciphers genetic information from wild plant species — distilling hundreds of millions of years of natural evolution into data-driven insights.
Its proprietary platform identifies genetic innovations that boost crop productivity and resilience, then uses those discoveries to guide precision breeding for modern, high-performance seed varieties.
What sets Wild Bio apart is its computational biology and AI toolkit, which maps plant evolution at scale, translating natural adaptation into actionable crop improvements.
The approach is already moving beyond theory: Wild Bio’s leading projects are in field trials across four countries, testing enhanced versions of staple crops under varying climatic and soil conditions.
“Advancing agriculture has limitless potential to help people and the planet,” said Dr Hendron, Wild Bio’s CEO. “To achieve meaningful, scalable impact, we need investors who share that vision. I’m deeply grateful to EIT and to our current investors for backing us as we move from scientific proof to large-scale application.”
The funding will allow Wild Bio to expand its R&D and commercial operations, strengthen partnerships with seed developers and growers, and accelerate the rollout of its first market-ready crop varieties.
Professor Kelly, the company’s co-founder and chief scientific officer, said the partnership with the Ellison Institute would “create a powerful synergy” that merges advanced biology with real-world innovation.
“Together, we can reshape sustainable agriculture on a global scale,” he said. “This collaboration will help us bring breakthrough technologies to market faster — enhancing crop resilience, boosting yields, and promoting environmental sustainability.”
The deal also marks a milestone for Oxford’s growing ecosystem of science and technology spinouts, many of which are attracting large-scale global investment. Oxford Science Enterprises, which has backed over 80 spinouts since its founding in 2015, called Wild Bio “one of the university’s most promising agtech ventures.”
As climate change disrupts traditional agriculture and global food systems strain under population growth, the race to develop climate-smart crops has intensified.
Wild Bio’s data-led approach aims to shorten breeding cycles, reduce dependence on genetic modification, and equip farmers with varieties that can withstand drought, heat, and disease — all while improving yield.
By integrating AI with biological data, the company represents a new wave of “computational agriculture” startups seeking to modernise the food system from the genome up.
With Ellison’s endorsement and Oxford’s scientific firepower behind it, Wild Bio now has the capital and global network to move from field trials to full-scale production — a step that could define the future of sustainable farming.
Read more:
Larry Ellison Backs Oxford spinout Wild Bio in £45M round
