Moa Technology has secured a £22.2 million Series C financing round as it seeks to strengthen its position as a discovery engine for the crop protection industry.
The round was co-led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Supernova Invest, with new investors including Agri Investment Fund (AIF), GrainInnovate, Infinity Investment Partners and Magdalen College Oxford. Existing investors OSE, Lansdowne Partners, Parkwalk and Oxford University Innovation also participated.
The fundraising comes as the company continues to expand its network of commercial partnerships across the crop protection sector. Over the past two years, Moa has signed research and development agreements with Nufarm, Gowan, Certis Belchim and, most recently, Corteva Agriscience.
Notably absent from the cap table are major crop protection corporations themselves.
According to Moa, that is not by accident.
“There are significant advantages to having major corporates as partners rather than as shareholders, namely maintaining our independence as an innovation partner working with collaborators across the industry on different types of projects,” a company spokesperson told AgNavigator.
“Our vision and ambition is to become the industry’s leading source of herbicide innovation.”
While the company confirmed that strategic investors from the agrochemical sector have shown interest in taking stakes, it believes its current model provides greater flexibility to collaborate simultaneously with multiple players.
Building the industry’s herbicide pipeline
Founded in 2017 as a spinout from Oxford University, Moa is attempting to tackle one of agriculture’s biggest challenges: herbicide resistance.
The company’s proprietary GALAXY discovery platform has screened more than 900,000 compounds and identified over 80 novel modes of action – potential mechanisms capable of controlling weeds that have developed resistance to existing herbicides.
The company’s most advanced programmes have already progressed beyond laboratory and glasshouse validation and are now showing encouraging results in international field trials.
Moa’s current leading programmes include a broad spectrum pre-emergent novel mode of action for corn, soya and cereal crops; a pre-plant burndown novel mode of action for corn, soya and cereals; and a post-emergent novel mode of action targeted specifically at blackgrass and ryegrass in European cereal crops.
The most advanced candidate is nearing the end of its research phase and could potentially be only a few years away from registration submission, according to the company.
Funding commercialisation while feeding discovery
Moa says most of the new capital will be directed towards advancing its three most mature programmes.
“Programmes require more investment as they become more mature – so we expect the majority of the proceeds will be used to support our advanced programmes,” the spokesperson said.
However, the company is also determined to avoid becoming solely a late-stage development business.
Investment will continue flowing into early-stage discovery to ensure the pipeline continues generating new opportunities.
The company currently employs around 75 full-time staff and expects only modest headcount growth, reflecting a strategy focused on maintaining a lean operating model.
“We are very clear that our unique competitive advantage lies in agile, capital-light innovation and discovery,” the spokesperson said.
Beyond herbicides
Alongside novel herbicide modes of action, Moa is also developing a new category of products known as Moa Amplifiers.
Discovered in 2025, these products are not herbicidal in their own right but can enhance the effectiveness of existing herbicides, potentially allowing farmers to achieve the same level of weed control using lower application rates.
The company is particularly excited about a newer programme known as bioAmplifiers, which uses natural products to boost herbicide efficacy.
While still at an early stage, Moa sees considerable commercial potential in technologies that could reduce herbicide use while maintaining performance.
“The commercial and environmental potential for products which can dramatically reduce herbicide use rates is obvious for all to see,” the spokesperson said.
A different model for crop protection innovation
For investors, Moa’s appeal lies not just in individual herbicide candidates but in the platform itself.
Since its formation, the company has positioned itself as a specialist innovation partner capable of supplying novel technologies to multiple crop protection companies simultaneously.
CEO Dr Virginia Corless said the latest funding round validates both the science and the commercial model.
“This marks a major milestone for Moa Technology – a validation of the outstanding progress we have made not just in the laboratory, but also in striking commercial deals with leading industry partners around the world,” she said.
The company believes agriculture needs far more than one or two new herbicides to manage resistance sustainably.
With more than 80 novel mode-of-action areas already identified, Moa argues its role is not necessarily to become another fully integrated agrochemical company, but rather to provide the wider industry with a steady stream of innovation.
“Farmers need a new portfolio of more effective, sustainable and affordable solutions to tackle weed resistance,” the spokesperson said.
Viewed through that lens, the £22.2 million fundraising is less about building a standalone crop protection giant and more about cementing Moa’s role as an independent source of innovation for an industry increasingly searching for new ways to stay ahead of resistant weeds.
