Wild Bioscience scales climate resilient crop development at Milton Park

Photo: 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.

Wild Bioscience scales climate resilient crop development at Milton Park following £45m backing led by Ellison Institute of Technology

Strengthens 40-strong team with appointment of Lisa Flashner, COO at EIT as non-executive director and Dr Stuart Harrison as chief business officer

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.

Expansion of laboratory facilities

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.

Lisa Flashner and Dr Stuart Harrison join the senior team

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.

Want to know more

Find out more about Wild Bioscience

Wild Bioscience