Moa Technology, founded by an ex-astrophysicist nets £22.2M to tackle one of farming’s biggest threats — TFN

• Moa Expertise has accomplished a £22.2 million Sequence C spherical, co-led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Supernova Make investments.
• Over the past two years, Moa Expertise has signed R&D agreements with 4 main agrochemical firms, together with Corteva Agriscience.
• Dr Virginia Corless, the CEO, beforehand labored in astrophysics and on vitality coverage for the US Senate.

Earlier than addressing crop-killing weeds, Dr Virginia Corless studied astrophysics. Her profession included clear vitality coverage for the US Senate and work on a food-energy-water venture within the Sahara desert. This led to her present function as chief government officer of Moa Technology.

The corporate simply raised £22.2 million to strengthen its place within the often-overlooked market of weed resistance. The Sequence C spherical was co-led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Supernova Make investments.

New buyers included Agri Funding Fund, GrainInnovate for Australia’s Grain Analysis Improvement Company, Infinity Funding Companions, and Magdalen School Oxford. Current buyers Lansdowne Companions, Parkwalk, and Oxford College Innovation additionally joined in.

Moa Expertise was based in 2017 by Professor Liam Dolan and Dr Clément Champion as a spin-out from Oxford College’s Plant Sciences Division. Corless turned CEO in 2021, bringing expertise from astrophysics, clear vitality coverage, the Sahara Forest Challenge, and Novihum Applied sciences, a German agricultural know-how firm.

Moa relies in Oxford, runs a glasshouse analysis facility in North Yorkshire, and has examined over 900,000 compounds because it began.

Why weed resistance is an even bigger difficulty than it appears

Herbicide resistance is turning into an even bigger downside as weeds adapt to present chemical compounds sooner than new options will be created. Moa’s know-how has discovered over 80 new methods to struggle weeds, with a number of now of their third yr of worldwide discipline trials.

In 2025, the corporate launched Moa Amplifiers, which aren’t herbicides themselves however assist scale back the quantity of conventional herbicide wanted. Farmers can use Amplifiers with their present merchandise to make use of fewer chemical compounds whereas nonetheless controlling resistant weeds.

Moa doesn’t compete immediately with large agrochemical firms like Bayer, Corteva, or Syngenta. As a substitute, it licenses its discoveries to those corporations, utilizing a mannequin extra like pharmaceutical platforms than typical agricultural know-how startups.

This issues as a result of most crop safety analysis is completed in-house by giant firms. Moa acts as an exterior discovery accomplice and has shaped industrial partnerships with Nufarm, Gowan, Certis Belchim, and Corteva Agriscience within the final two years.

In European agricultural know-how, Tech Funding Information has reported that many startups are working to cut back, not substitute, chemical use. For instance, Alvie, a startup from Paris, raised cash to chop pesticide use by enhancing how they’re utilized. Trapview created an AI system to observe pests and scale back spraying. Moa stands out by specializing in discovering fully new methods to struggle weeds.

What this funding spherical reveals about investor curiosity

The funds will assist deliver the three most superior applications to market, develop the early-stage pipeline, and additional develop the Amplifiers line, with additional help from milestone funds by trade companions.

“After we helped spin Moa out from the College of Oxford’s Plant Sciences Division in 2017, we noticed that its know-how platform had a novel and essential method to deal with the market’s want for herbicides able to breaking weed resistance,” says Martin Fiennes of Oxford Science Enterprises.

“Weed resistance continues to unfold. It’s inflicting growing yield losses, additional undermining the resilience of farming operations, whereas local weather change is predicted to make weed management much more difficult,” provides Alexandre Biau of Supernova Make investments.

“This marks a serious milestone for Moa Expertise — a validation of the excellent progress now we have made not simply within the laboratory, but additionally in hanging industrial offers with main trade companions world wide. We’re notably happy that, via AIF in Europe and GrainInnovate in Australia, the farming sector itself is intently related to the following part of Moa’s growth,” Corless concludes.

The worldwide herbicide market was valued at $47.31 billion in 2026 and is predicted to succeed in $60.09 billion by 2031, rising at a 4.9% annual fee resulting from rising meals demand and fewer accessible farmland. Moa is certainly one of a number of European startups, together with some on TFN’s recent watchlist, that might profit from this progress with out immediately promoting herbicides.

It’s nonetheless unclear whether or not Moa’s licensing mannequin will develop into a sustainable, impartial enterprise or primarily act as a long-term R&D supplier for giant trade gamers. This funding spherical has not answered that query but.