Rhizocore Technologies, a biotechnology company that uses fungi to improve tree growth and survival rates, has secured £4.5 million in investment to scale its innovative approach to forestry and woodland restoration.
The funding round was led by The First Thirty, a specialist investor in technologies to improve soil health. The round also includes participation from Scottish Enterprise, as well as from existing customer The Grosvenor Estate, one of the UK’s largest landowners.
Additional investors in the round are Sand River, Generation-Re (Regenerative Agriculture Syndicate), Kibo Invest, John Thomson, and Old College Capital (OCC), the University of Edinburgh’s in-house venture investment fund.
The technology works by providing saplings with specific Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi. Drawing on one of the world's largest living fungal libraries, Rhizocore selects the precise, high-performance species for a given site. These fungi form a symbiotic network with the roots, helping trees absorb more nutrients and water. This is especially important in the vulnerable early stages of a tree's life, underpinning survival, resilience and growth to deliver financial returns on forest assets.
The investment will allow the company to increase supply to meet future demand with existing customers already having purchased 100% of planned 2025/26 capacity.
Plantings using RhizoPellets™ have delivered unprecedented results. Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), for example, found that treated trees have shown a 97% survival rate compared to just 78% for untreated saplings, a relative 25% improvement in survival rate.
And at a site owned by Trees for Life, one of the UK's leading native woodland restoration charities, Downy Birch saplings grew thirteen times faster than control and fertilised trees after 12 months.
Rhizocore, which spun out from the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute and Deep Science Venture’s Food & Agriculture Science Transformer (FAST) programme in 2021, now operates across more than 100 active field sites. It delivers proven growth enhancements and survival across a diverse range of environments, from clear-felled forests and former agricultural pastures to heather moorlands.
The company’s advanced technology also enables successful tree establishment on challenging terrains, including reclaimed mining land and high-altitude landscapes.
Plant biologist Dr Toby Parkes, founder and CEO of Rhizocore, said:
We are excited to be working with both existing and new investors, including several of our customers, who are experts in forestry and soil health. The consortium of investors participating in this round is backing our data-driven, nature-first approach to enhance the success of tree planting and the forestry sector. Our results clearly show that planting success can be increased by tapping into the belowground fertilisation superpowers of fungi.
The fact that two of our existing customers have invested in this round is a testament to the work the Rhizocore team has put in, developing the knowledge and technology to unlock the potential of fungi to improve their returns. This capital will accelerate our business scaling plans, unlock new markets, and advance our mission of protecting, harnessing, and restoring fungal biodiversity. ”
In addition to supporting expansion into North America, where 1.4 billion trees are planted annually, the new capital will be used to fund a significant increase in production capacity at Rhizocore's Scottish facility in Roslin to fulfil its growing multi-year order book across the UK and Europe.
Dr Kate Fox, Head of Investment at OCC, part of Edinburgh Innovations, said:
Rhizocore’s harnessing of the magic of fungi to support soil and land restoration contributes directly to our University mission of tackling the climate and environment crisis, and we are proud to continue to support their expansion. ”
Antony Yousefian, General Partner at The First Thirty, added:
Our thesis at The First Thirty is that planetary and human health are one and the same—it all starts with the soil.
We invest in technologies that unlock the economic value of soil health, and Rhizocore is the perfect example. Their technology demonstrates that enhancing soil biology is not only an ecological benefit, but also a powerful driver of financial returns. By making land assets more resilient and productive, Rhizocore is creating the economic incentive that will pull billions in new capital towards large-scale restoration. "
