Larry Ellison backs Oxford agtech spinout Wild Bio in £45m round

Agritech startup Wild Bioscience has secured £45 million in Series A funding led by the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), the research organization founded by Larry Ellison, Chairman and CTO of Oracle.

This investment – ​​joined by existing backers Oxford Science Foundation (OSE), Bravos Capital and the University of Oxford – will further the company’s mission to revolutionize global agriculture through AI-driven genetic discovery and precision breeding.

Ellison, one of the world’s most influential technology entrepreneurs, who recently committed an additional £890m to the Oxford Science Institute, said his institute’s partnership with Wild Bio is in line with his long-term vision of harnessing data and science to solve humanity’s most pressing challenges.

“Wild Bio uses artificial intelligence to better understand the lessons learned over millions of years of evolution encoded in plant genomes,” Ellison said.

“These ideas, combined with precision breeding, have enabled Wild Bio to develop new crop varieties with higher yields and climate resilience. The ultimate goal is to grow these crops on a 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 works to decipher 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 enhance crop productivity and resilience, then uses those discoveries to guide the precision breeding of 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 pilot projects are undergoing field trials in four countries, testing improved versions of staple crops under varying climate and soil conditions.

“Advancing agriculture has limitless potential to help people and the planet,” said Dr. Hendron, CEO of Wild Bio. “To achieve meaningful, scalable impact, we need investors who share this vision. I am extremely grateful to EIT and to our existing investors for supporting us as we move from scientific evidence to widespread application.”

The funding will allow Wild Bio to expand its R&D and commercial operations, strengthen partnerships with seed developers and farmers, and accelerate the introduction of market-ready first 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” integrating advanced biology with real-world innovation.

“Together, we can reshape sustainable agriculture on a global scale,” he said. “This collaboration will help us bring advanced technologies to market faster – enhancing crop resilience, increasing yields, and enhancing environmental sustainability.”

The deal also represents a milestone in Oxford’s growing science and technology ecosystem, much of which is attracting large-scale global investment. Oxford Science Foundation, which has supported more than 80 start-ups since its founding in 2015, described Wild Bio as “one of the university’s most promising agritech projects”.

As climate change disrupts traditional agriculture and strains global food systems under the weight of population growth, the race to develop climate-smart crops has intensified.

Wild Bio’s data-driven approach aims to shorten breeding cycles, reduce reliance on genetic modification, and provide farmers with varieties that can withstand drought, heat, and disease – all while improving productivity.

By integrating artificial intelligence with biological data, the company represents a new wave of “computational agriculture” startups seeking to modernize the food system from the genome up.

Thanks to Ellison’s endorsement and the Oxford science power behind it, Wild Bio now has the capital and global network to move from field trials to large-scale production – a step that could define the future of sustainable agriculture.