Tag: Oxford

Moa Technology is pleased to announce that Lee Sweetlove, Professor of Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, has joined our team.  Professor Sweetlove will be working to further understanding of the novel herbicidal modes of action discovered by Moa, which we are currently developing into safe, effective and affordable solutions to protect harvests from crop-killing weeds.

Professor Sweetlove has over 30 years of experience working in plant science and is internationally recognised for his work in deciphering fluxes in plant metabolic networks.  His expertise and network will be invaluable to Moa in helping prioritise and deliver our innovative plant protection solutions.

Spun out of Oxford University in 2017, Moa has developed proprietary technology to discover a whole new generation of herbicidal modes of action to provide farmers with modern crop protection solutions which break weed resistance.  In the last three years, Moa’s GALAXY platform has already screened over 750,000 compounds and discovered over 70 promising novel herbicidal mode of action areas.  In July 2024, Moa signed a major partnership with Nufarm to co-develop and commercialise one of these new chemical series.

Comments Professor Sweetlove:

“Working with Moa is an ideal opportunity for me to put my many years of experience of plant biochemistry and metabolism research to direct practical use.  I am very excited to be working with this world-class scientific team on deepening our understanding of the dozens of novel herbicidal modes of action already discovered by the company, and helping progress these solutions as quickly as possible to the field.”

Dr Virginia Corless, Chief Executive of Moa Technology, adds:

“As we grow ever closer to bringing a new generation of modern, safe, effective herbicides to farmers’ fields, we are so pleased to welcome Professor Lee Sweetlove to our team.  From the outset, Moa has combined the most innovative academic minds in the world with the best commercial talent in the industry to address the urgent global problem of weed resistance.  Following our appointments in the last year of Hartmut van Lengerich, former SVP at Bayer Global Crop Protection, as Chair of the Moa Board, and Apostolos Klontzaris, formerly of Bayer Crop Science and Syngenta Crop Protection, as Chief Business Officer, Lee’s appointment will help ensure our expertise at the leading edge of weed biology remains second to none.”

Moa has been named as one of the most exciting new companies emerging from the vibrant technology environment in and around the city of Oxford, UK.

Its innovative approach to discovering safe and effective chemistry to combat the resistant weeds that threaten global food security secured Moa a place alongside other start-ups focused on applying cutting edge technologies in sectors including energy, pharma, digital and space.

GrowthBusiness has highlighted these innovators to illustrate the growing success of Oxford’s tech sector.  Several initiatives by the University of Oxford and the City Council are designed to attract talent, and to incentivise and support start-ups, including access to funding.  The Oxford tech sector employed 37,000 people in 2018, contributing £1.8 billion to the UK economy.

Dr Shuji Hachisu, Moa’s Chief Technology Officer said: “Moa is proud to be listed amongst other exciting innovative companies in our local tech community.  We benefitted from the support offered by Oxford University Innovation and have located in the BioEscalator on the campus.  We have expanded quickly and are filling a pipeline with chemistry that will make a vital impact in crop protection.”

Read the article here.

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Moa has secured funding of £6.3m ($8m) to develop its unique in vivo herbicide discovery platforms GALAXY, TARGET and SELECT.

The Series A funding round was co-led by Oxford Sciences Innovation, the world’s largest university venture fund, and Parkwalk Advisors, the largest EIS (enterprise investment scheme) growth fund manager focused on university spinouts.

Oxford University Innovation, the University’s innovation arm, assisted in spinning the company out in 2018.  Professor Liam Dolan, Moa’s co-founder from the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford University, said:

“We have redesigned the discovery process in its entirety. Not only do we focus on identifying new potential modes of action at the outset, but our platform combines in vivo screening with a high throughput capability. Early results are extremely promising”.

Hadyn Parry, Chairman of Moa, added:

“Weeds are now a greater threat to crop yields than at any time in recent decades. New solutions are urgently needed. Raising £6m at this stage in the company’s development is a real testament to the strength of the company’s prospects.”

Over the next couple of years moa plans to progress several new active ingredients towards development and work with partners to make them available to farmers worldwide.

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