Edinburgh firm behind fungal pellet gets £3.5m to 'revolutionise' reforestation

An Edinburgh-based start-up venture that produces special fungi to ensure trees survive and thrive has netted £3.5 million to “revolutionise the future of reforestation”.

Founded in 2021 by its chief executive Toby Parkes and chief mycologist David Satori, Rhizocore Technologies has developed a “first-of-its-kind” fungal pellet, which acts as a vital underground nutrient exchange between trees and fungi. The company has ambitious plans to scale its operations over the next two and half years, with the aim of planting up to five million trees with accompanying fungal pellets in 2025 alone. The seed-round funding, which was led by ReGen Ventures, Collaborative Fund and Grok Ventures, will allow the fledgling firm to build upon its ten-person team and develop the infrastructure needed to rapidly scale up operations.

Parkes said: “To receive such global backing really is a validation of our product’s potential to restore ecosystems around the world - but it’s also a recognition of the transformative power that fungi hold, as the crucial foundation of the planet’s ecosystems. This is a radical approach to tackle climate change that we’re developing at Rhizocore, and with the support from our investors we will be able to sequester gigatons of carbon to protect the future of the Earth for generations to come.”

The firm joins ReGen Ventures’ investment portfolio of global regenerative technology companies that are supporting planetary scale regeneration. Dan Fitzgerald, founder and managing partner of ReGen Ventures, said: “We’re excited to support David, Toby and the team to build their networks of fungal diversity that can be deployed across the world.”

Guy Vidra, partner at New York-based venture capital firm Collaborative Fund, added: “Rhizocore’s mycorrhizal solutions are really exciting. Toby and David have pioneered a breakthrough approach that can accelerate reforestation while moving the needle for traditional forestry companies - both critical means to addressing a vast and unresolved issue in climate change.”

Launching at scale is seen as imperative to creating the necessary impact, and the £3.5m backing for the capital-based business is an investment in the fungal kingdom that has the potential to increase the restoration of biodiversity in ecosystems around the world.