This Oxford Spinout Just Bought a Wheat Breeder to Reshape UK Farming

Jan de Vries · 2026-07-29

### The Big Picture: A New Kind of Seed Company Wild Bioscience (Wild Bio), an AgTech spinout from Oxford University, just made a move that could change how British wheat is grown. The company has acquired F1 Seed, an independent wheat breeding business based in Suffolk. This isn't just another acquisition; it creates Britain's first fully independent, end-to-end seed company that combines precision breeding with gene editing. The financial details weren't disclosed, but this deal comes on the heels of Wild Bio's massive $58.3 million Series A round. That's right, $58.3 million. The company has now raised a total of $75 million from heavy hitters like The Ellison Institute of Technology, Oxford Science Enterprises, Braavos Capital, and the University of Oxford itself. ### Why Wheat Matters More Than You Think Wheat is Britain's biggest crop. It feeds about a fifth of the world's population. But here's the problem: growing it is getting harder. Climate change brings drought, heat, and flooding. Diseases like yellow rust can wipe out entire fields. And for decades, the genetics behind Britain's wheat have been controlled by foreign multinationals. That's left the UK's wheat pool narrow and vulnerable. Dr. Ross Hendron, co-founder and CEO of Wild Bio, put it simply: "Wheat is Britain's biggest crop and feeds a fifth of humanity. But on a changing planet, growing it is only getting harder. That's the challenge we exist to meet." ### What Wild Bio Actually Does Founded in 2021 by Dr. Hendron and Steve Kelly, Wild Bio is a plant science company that uses evolutionary biology, AI, and gene editing to design better crops. The company's platform analyzes hundreds of millions of years of plant evolution to find genetic improvements from wild species. Then, it uses those insights to guide precision breeding for modern elite crop varieties. Think of it like this: nature has already solved many of the problems we face. Wild plants have evolved to survive drought, heat, and flooding. Wild Bio just decodes those solutions and applies them to wheat. The result? Higher-yielding, lower-carbon farming that's more resilient to climate change. ### The F1 Seed Factor F1 Seed was founded in 2014 by veteran wheat breeder Bill Angus. His mission was simple: broaden genetic diversity and protect farmers from widespread crop failure. The company already has six wheat varieties on the UK market, mainly for animal feed and distilling, with three more set to launch soon. "This is the most exciting news for wheat growers since Cambridge University established the Plant Breeding Institute in 1912," Angus said. "Now over a century later, armed with an array of novel traits, we are well placed to move wheat breeding into a new and exciting era." ### What This Means for Farmers For US farmers watching from across the Atlantic, this is a glimpse of what's possible when you combine cutting-edge biotech with traditional breeding. Wild Bio's approach could eventually be applied to other crops like corn, soybeans, or cotton. The key takeaway: precision breeding can produce changes that would take decades through conventional methods. And it does so without introducing foreign DNA, which makes it more palatable for regulators and consumers alike. ### The Bottom Line Wild Bio's acquisition of F1 Seed isn't just a business deal. It's a signal that the future of agriculture is being built right now. By combining evolutionary insights with AI and gene editing, this Oxford spinout is positioning itself to bend the yield curve upward again. For anyone interested in food security and sustainable farming, this is a story worth watching.