Moa Technology has closed a £22.2 million Series C round to advance three herbicide programs toward commercialization, backed by investors with direct ties to European and Australian farm sectors.

Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) and Supernova Invest co-led the financing. New backers include the Agri Investment Fund (AIF), GrainInnovate — managed by Artesian on behalf of the Grain Research and Development Corporation — Infinity Investment Partners, and Magdalen College Oxford. Existing investors OSE, Lansdowne Partners, Parkwalk, and Oxford University Innovation also participated.

The company, spun out of the University of Oxford's Plant Sciences Department in 2017, focuses on discovering herbicides with novel modes of action to control yield-robbing weeds that have already overcome existing chemistry. Over the past 24 months, Moa has built R&D collaborations with Nufarm, Gowan, Certis Belchim, and Corteva Agriscience — ties that will complement the equity funding with upfront and milestone payments from current and future commercial partners.

Its screening platforms have tested more than 900,000 compounds and identified over 80 novel mode of action areas capable of overriding existing weed resistance. In 2025, the company launched a product category it calls Moa Amplifiers, designed to cut the total amount or concentration of herbicides farmers need to apply — a direct lever on crop protection input costs, which typically rank among the largest variable expenses in broadacre production.

"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," said Dr. Virginia Corless, CEO of Moa Technology, in the announcement.

"We are particularly pleased that, 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 solutions to the fields where they are so urgently needed," Corless said.

The grower-linked investor base signals that levies and farm-capital channels are betting on new chemistry to slow the spread of herbicide-resistant weeds, a problem that erodes yields and margins across major production regions. Moa frames its discovery count and field-trial results as laboratory-stage and trial findings rather than harvested commercial outcomes; the company has not disclosed registration timelines or projected launch dates for its three lead programs.

Martin Fiennes of Oxford Science Enterprises, which helped spin the company out in 2017, said the platform's discoveries in the lab and in field trials confirm Moa is on track to deliver new solutions farmers need to sustain agricultural productivity.

Alexandre Biau of Supernova Invest pointed to the scale of the problem: "Weed resistance continues to spread. It is causing increasing yield losses, further undermining the resilience of farming operations, while climate change is expected to make weed control even more challenging."

"In response, the Moa team is redefining the innovation playbook for weed control by advancing both novel modes of action and its Moa Amplifiers strategy, expanding the toolbox available to farmers," Biau continued.

Moa says the new capital will also expand its pipeline of early-stage discovery projects and continue development of the Amplifiers program. With partner-funded milestone payments layered on top of the equity, the company plans to push its three lead herbicide candidates significantly closer to market.