Wild Bioscience scales climate-resilient crop development at Milton Park following £45m backing led by Ellison Institute of Technology
Wild Bioscience, a University of Oxford spinout focused on climate-resilient crops, has scaled its operations at Milton Park following a £45 million ($60 million) Series A investment led by the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), with continued support from Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE), Braavos and the University of Oxford.
The investment has enabled a significant step-change in the business to accelerate the expansion of its laboratory facilities, strengthening its leadership team and advancing its route to market for its first improved crop varieties.
At Milton Park, Wild Bioscience has signed a new lease and moved into expanded laboratory and office space, to increase its footprint by 4,560 sq ft (423 sq m) to total 16,000 sq ft (1,486 sq m). This has included a new and enhanced space across 115 Olympic Avenue and additional buildings, alongside a newly fitted office and CL2 gene-editing laboratory at 127 Olympic Avenue.
The new facility will serve as a dedicated crop design and engineering centre, with a particular focus on developing precision-bred wheat.
Combined with team growth and the integration of new technologies, the expansion has enabled the company to triple its plant output within a matter of months.
Wild Bioscience has grown organically at Milton Park since it first arrived in 2021, progressively taking additional space as it has scaled to 40 people.
Today, its facilities include advanced laboratory environments alongside specialist grow space to enable rapid iteration and testing of crop traits under controlled conditions.
Further investment is now being deployed to convert existing office space into bespoke crop growth facilities, which will significantly increase controlled environment capacity. This will allow the business to test crops across a wider range of conditions and accelerate seed production for field trials.
Alongside its physical expansion, the company has strengthened its commercial pathway through a growing network of global partnerships. Recent collaborations have included The Traits Company, the strategic biotech arm of GDM, KWS, Dyson Farming and Pairwise Plants, to support the development and deployment of improved crop varieties internationally.
Wild Bioscience uses AI-driven modelling alongside molecular biology to identify and harness traits found in wild plant species, to accelerate the development of crops that can withstand increasingly volatile climate conditions while improving yields and reducing carbon intensity.
The company has also strengthened its senior team with two significant appointments reflecting its next phase of growth.
Lisa Flashner, chief operating officer at the Ellison Institute of Technology, has joined the board as a non-executive director, to bring extensive experience in scaling complex organisations and deliver major scientific infrastructure.
Dr Stuart Harrison has joined as chief business officer, following a 24-year seeds industry career at Syngenta, where he held senior global leadership roles across R&D partnerships, product development and venture investment.
Ross Hendron, CEO and co-founder of Wild Bioscience, said: “Since founding Wild Bio, we’ve been building a powerful design engine to create resilient crops. AI is now dramatically accelerating that capability, but to realise its full potential we need to scale pipelines that turn predictions into validated crop products and feed real-world results back to continuously improve our models.
“This expansion in infrastructure, team, and technology is a key step in developing the engineering loop that bridges computational design and plant biology. We’re starting with the world’s most widely grown crop: wheat.
“We’re excited to welcome Lisa and Stuart to the team as we deploy our Series A to fundamentally change how crops are designed, enabling agriculture to keep up with our rapidly changing planet.”
Lisa Flashner, chief operating officer at the Ellison Institute of Technology and board member at Wild Bioscience, said: “At the Ellison Institute of Technology, we focus on translating breakthrough science into solutions that can deliver real-world impact at scale.
“Wild Bioscience exemplifies this approach – combining deep scientific expertise with a clear ambition to address global food resilience in an increasingly complex world. The continued investment in capability reflects a business building strong foundations for sustainable, scalable growth.
“I’m delighted to join the board and support the team as they take the next steps in their development.”
Tom Booker, asset manager of Milton Park at Federated Hermes Real Estate added: “Wild Bioscience’s continued growth is a strong example of how companies can start, scale and specialise at Milton Park.
“Their expansion reflects both the strength of their science and the momentum behind the business, supported by significant recent investment, the addition of senior leadership and a clear pathway to commercialisation. It’s exactly the kind of journey the Park is designed to support.”
Wild Bioscience is part of a growing cluster of science and technology companies at Milton Park, where organisations are able to evolve from early-stage innovation through to commercial scale within a single location.
***High resolution images attached***:
- Ross Hendron, co-founder and CEO of Wild Bioscience inspecting precision-bred wheat at Milton Park, Oxfordshire, which is producing seeds for field trials this year – credit Aurelien Langlais
- Wild Bioscience technicians Tabitha Furman-Woodvine and Gracie Hammond harvesting wheat with co-founder and CEO Ross Hendron in the newly extended facilities at Milton Park, Oxfordshire – credit Aurelien Langlais
- Stuart Harrison, incoming CBO at Wild Bioscience, inspecting one of the growth rooms at Milton Park, Oxfordshire – credit Aurelien Langlais
- Wild Bioscience crop facility coordinator Isaac Adegboye and technician Max Finlay carrying out plant care checks at Milton Park, Oxfordshire – credit Aurelien Langlais
- Wild Bioscience research associate Sonal Dhamgaye investigating plant samples for the expanding wheat transformation team at Milton Park, Oxfordshire – credit Aurelien Langlais
For further information, please contact:
Olivia Lane-Nott
Spacecraft Consulting on behalf of Milton Park and connecting to Ross Hendron
07968 081 128
About Milton Park
Milton Park is the UK’s largest single ownership innovation community for science, business and technology. With nearly three million square feet of floor space across 300 acres, it is home to over 280 organisations collectively employing thousands of people, many of whom are working on some of the world’s greatest challenges.
Located in southern Oxfordshire, approximately 12 miles to the south of the city of Oxford just off the A34 dual carriageway, Milton Park is close to Didcot Parkway train station in an area known as Science Vale. Outstanding sustainable transport links and a strategic location provide easy connectivity to world-class academia, research and innovation hubs.
Occupiers enjoy extensive areas of green space, numerous events to encourage collaboration and a growing range of amenities including multiple food outlets, a gym with swimming pool, pharmacy, post office and childcare nursery.
The welcoming on-site team is focused on accommodating organisations whatever their size or stage of growth, actively encouraging business connections and partnerships across sectors including life sciences, energy, space and supporting technologies.
Milton Park benefits from a unique Local Development Order (LDO) simplified ten-day planning policy and has invested in its own electrical infrastructure, which provides enhanced power supply for R&D uses and future developments, giving occupiers greater flexibility and agility to scale up. All underpinned by Milton Park’s 2040 Vision setting out its future ambition to continue to support innovation, be an asset to the knowledge economy and surrounding communities.
Milton Park is held in the MEPC Milton LP joint venture partnership for two long term pension fund shareholders and managed by Federated Hermes Real Estate and developed by MEPC Ltd, the specialist real estate development arm of Federated Hermes.
For more information, please visit Milton Park’s website – www.miltonpark.com
About Wild Bioscience
Wild Bioscience Ltd is a UK agbiotech company developing resilient crops for a changing planet. The company applies advanced gene editing and AI-driven crop improvement to create varieties that help farmers to drive higher productivity while also supporting agriculture’s role in a lower-carbon future. Wild Bioscience is a spinout of Oxford University and partners with leading organisations across research and industry to bring next-generation crop varieties to market.
For more information, visit www.wildbioscience.com
About Lisa Flashner, chief operating officer, Ellison Institute of Technology
Lisa Flashner is chief operating officer at the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), where she leads strategic planning and oversees core business functions, including operations, real estate, construction and the continued expansion of EIT’s Oxford campus.
Prior to relocating to Oxford, Lisa spent 15 years as chief operating officer of the Ellison Medical Institute (EMI) in Los Angeles, where she played a central role in building and scaling the organisation. She continues to support EMI as a senior advisor and serves as a board member of the Ellison Institute Research Foundation.
Earlier in her career, Lisa was a partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital, specialising in early-stage technology investments, and a lead investment banker at Robert W. Baird & Co., focused on the IT and telecommunications sectors. She began her career practising corporate law and as a tax accountant at Arthur Andersen & Co.
Lisa holds a bachelor of science in accounting from the University of Illinois, a magna cum laude law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, and worked as a tax accountant at Arthur Andersen & Co.
Dr Stuart Harrison, chief business officer, Wild Bioscience
Stuart brings more than two decades of international experience in the seeds and ag-tech sector, having spent 24 years at Syngenta in senior leadership roles across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
His positions included head of R&D partnerships and open innovation, head of product development for Asia Pacific, and investment manager in Syngenta’s first corporate venture fund.
In addition to his corporate experience, Stuart advises global ag-tech startups and contributes to the NC State Ag Entrepreneur programme.
Stuart holds a PhD in Protein Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Queensland and in addition is a Kauffman Fellow.
Ends
