UK-based Moa Technology has raised a £22.2 million ($29.6 million) Series C round to further advance its discovery platform for novel modes of action in weed management.
The company, which spun out of Oxford University in 2017, says it has already discovered more than 80 novel modes of action areas for controlling weeds and breaking through weed resistance, two massive problems in farming right now.
Recent estimates note more than 500 unique cases of herbicide-resistant weeds globally; these weeds have evolved resistance to 21 out of 31 known herbicide sites of action and to 168 different herbicides. On top of that, regulatory scrutiny and demand for fewer synthetic chemicals in the field put additional pressure on the crop protection industry to provide new tools to farmers.
Other crop protection startups focus on developing biological alternatives to synthetic chemical products a la glyphosate. Moa Technology instead seeks out modes of action, the new routes for herbicidal compounds to attack weeds’ cells.
Moa says that across international field trials, its most advanced novel modes of action are “performing strongly” on tough species like pernicious grasses and broad leaf weeds across multiple seasons. The company has also discovered a class of biological “amplifier” molecules that can work in coordination with existing herbicides, improving efficacy and potentially helping farmers reduce rates of application. (For IP reasons, Moa does not publicly release the technical details on how these amplifier molecules function.)
The funding announcement comes on the heels of a new R&D partnership with Corteva that will leverage Moa’s discovery platform over multiple years. Moa also has partnerships with Australian agri-chem company Nufarm, agricultural services company Gowan (to develop a new amplifier for a specific active ingredient), and crop protection company Certis Belchim.
‘Significantly’ closer to commercialization
Oxford Science Enterprises and Supernova Invest co-led the Series C round with participation from the Agri Investment Fund (AIF), the GrainInnovate fund, and Magdalen College Oxford. Existing investors Lansdowne Partners, Parkwalk, and Oxford University Innovation also joined the round.
Moa will use the new capital to bring its three most advanced programs “significantly” closer to commercialization. While an exact timeline is not yet disclosed, the company says it is nearing completion of the research phase for these and is “perhaps a couple of years away from submission for registration.”
Funding will also go towards building out Moa’s pipeline of early-stage novel modes of action, and to further develop the Amplifier’s program.
CEO Dr. Virginia Corless in particular highlighted the close involvement of the farming sector itself in Moa’s progress.
“Through AIF in Europe and GrainInnovate in Australia, the farming sector itself is closely connected to the next phase of Moa’s development, helping accelerate delivery of our soluƟons to the fields where they are so urgently needed.”
As for fundraising in what’s been a challenging environment for the last few years, she said: “Everyone in the sector knows that the agtech funding environment in general has become much tougher over the last five years, particularly once you move past seed stage, so it’s a fantastic achievement to have completed a raise of this size in this context.”
Getting traction with commercial collaborations as early as possible is key, she adds, hence partnerships with the major companies noted above.
“For investors, it has validated the seriousness and urgency of the agricultural problem we are focusing on, as well as the credibility of our solutions.”
Further reading:
Where’s the progress in bioherbicide development? Industry players weigh in
The cracks in chemical farming are getting hard to ignore. These startups are providing alternatives
