UK AgriBioTech startup Resurrect Bio closes €8.8 million Series A to develop disease-resistant crops
Resurrect Bio, a London-based agricultural BioTech startup developing disease-resistant crops, has closed its oversubscribed Series A funding round at €8.8 million ($10.3 million). In February 2026, the company made an initial close of over €6.8 million ($8 million) in its Series A round.
The round was led by Corteva through its Corteva Catalyst platform, with participation from Calculus Capital, Pymwymic, UKI2S (managed by Future Planet Capital), SynBioVen, and AgFunder. The final closing brings Resurrect Bio’s total funding to about $12.4 million since its inception, including the 2023 Seed round.
Dr Cian Duggan, CEO of Resurrect Bio. “The strength of this raise reflects growing conviction in what we’re building: a scalable, AI-driven platform for resurrecting disease resistance in the world’s most important crops. It’s also a validation of what’s possible when you combine the UK’s world-class plant science base with commercial ambition to translate it into real-world impact.
“We’re expanding our team, deepening our platforms, and actively seeking joint development agreements with seed companies and breeders who want to bring durable resistance traits to farmers.”
Spun out of The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, Resurrect Bio was founded in 2022 by Prof. Sophien Kamoun, Prof. Tolga Bozkurt and Dr Cian Duggan. The company is on a mission to become the world’s leading plant disease resistance company, developing both in-house traits and collaborating with leading seed companies to protect crops.
Resurrect Bio provides the seed industry with a sustainable alternative to chemical crop protection by resurrecting complex resistance mechanisms.
The company’s core technology is based on the idea that pathogens evolve to weaken the crop’s immune response, causing disease. The company’s approach is to resurrect the immune system, locking the pathogen out of the crop.
The funds will be deployed to scale Resurrect Bio’s three core capabilities: its FloraFold® AI in silico discovery platform, which predicts interactions between plant and pathogen proteins; its high-throughput functional biology platform, which validates those predictions at scale; and its Resurrection platform, which reactivates cryptic resistance mechanisms already present in elite germplasm.
Together, these platforms “dramatically” compress the timeline from discovery to deployment in crop.
Elizabeth Klein-Edmonds, Investment Director at Calculus Capital, said, “Crop disease remains a major and often overlooked challenge in global agriculture. Resurrect Bio’s innovative gene-editing platform, which restores native disease-resistance genes in crops, offers a promising solution by reducing dependence on chemicals and boosting yields.”
Resurrect Bio claims to be ready to engage seed companies and breeders through additional joint development agreements. Through these partnerships, it aims to bring durable disease-resistance traits to commercial pipelines faster than conventional breeding can achieve. In March 2026, the company announced its partnership with Corteva Agriscience to develop disease resistance in corn.
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