Rhizocore Technologies, a UK-based biotechnology company harnessing the power of fungi to improve tree growth and survival rates, has secured £4.5 million in investment to accelerate its mission of transforming forestry and woodland restoration. The funding round was led by The First Thirty, a specialist investor in soil health technologies and included support from Scottish Enterprise and The Grosvenor Estate, one of the UK’s largest landowners. Other investors in the round included Sand River, Generation-Re (Regenerative Agriculture Syndicate), Kibo Invest, John Thomson and Old College Capital, the University of Edinburgh’s in-house venture investment fund.
How the technology works
Operating within the UK Agri-Tech Centre’s Northern Innovation Hub in Roslin, near Edinburgh, Rhizocore specialises in producing locally adapted mycorrhizal fungi.
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 help support woodland regeneration and tree planting success by forming a symbiotic network with the roots, helping trees absorb more nutrients and water. This is important in the vulnerable early stages of a tree’s life, underpinning survival, resilience and growth to ensure long-term financial returns on forest assets.
A great success
The investment responds to overwhelming market validation for Rhizocore’s technology. It 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™ across numerous sites and involving major industry partners have delivered unprecedented results:
• Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) found a 97% survival rate for treated trees versus 78% for untreated saplings – a 25% improvement in survival rate
• At a site owned by Trees for Life, Downy Birch saplings grew thirteen times faster than control and fertilised trees after 12 months
Rhizocore now operates across more than 100 active field sites, delivering proven growth improvements and survival in a variety of environments – from clear-felled forests and former farmland to heather-covered moorlands. The technology also makes it possible to successfully establish trees in some of the toughest environments, including reclaimed mining land and high-altitude landscapes.
Dr Toby Parkes, founder 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 below-ground 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.”
What’s next for Rhizocore?
The funding secured will enable Rhizocore to continue to grow, helping the company to increase its production capacity at its Scottish facility in Roslin to be able to fulfil its growing multi-year order book across the UK and Europe. Rhizocore will also use the capital to grow its team by 50% and expand into the North American market.
Antony Yousefian, General Partner at The First Thirty, said: “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.”
Davy Portway, Head of Venture Investment at Grosvenor, said: “At Grosvenor, we believe that mitigating climate change and its impacts is vital. By taking a localised approach to enhancing and restoring our natural assets, we aim to improve the resilience of our land. Having recently completed comprehensive natural capital baselining across our rural estates, we are now developing long-term plans to leverage nature-based solutions that improve biodiversity, soil health and flood resilience. Our partnership with Rhizocore is well timed to support these ambitions and we are particularly excited to assess the impact on below-ground biomass amongst the trees we have planted along with RhizoPellets™. Rhizocore’s locally adapted mycorrhizal fungi solution aligns seamlessly with our sustainability goals, which aim to deliver the dual benefit of accelerating nature restoration while enhancing tree growth and planting survival rates.”
Derek Shaw, Director of Entrepreneurship and Investment at Scottish Enterprise, said: “Rhizocore’s breakthrough in fungal biotechnology highlights the kind of nature-based innovation that can scale rapidly and deliver impact. This investment not only strengthens Scotland’s position in the global bioeconomy but also demonstrates how data-led approaches to soil health can unlock new commercial opportunities while restoring our natural capital and a boost to the environment too.”
Gareth Waters, Head of Forest Management Support at FLS, said: “The organisation now plans to expand the use of the pellets across multiple sites during the next planting season, with ongoing monitoring to assess their long-term impact. We are always looking for new ways to improve and adapt our forestry practices to grow more productive and resilient forests. It is really encouraging to see that early trials in our collaboration with Rhizocore Technologies have yielded increased survival rates on a test plot at our Damside site.”
Jack Hooper, Chief Operating Officer at Rhizocore, said: “We deliver a localised and tailored product to each customer, to their trees and site conditions, which is enabled by our massive and ever-growing strain library. With this investment, we will increase production at the UK Agri-Tech Centre’s Northern Innovation Hub by at least ten times and increase the headcount by 50%, as well as set up operations in the US. Our laboratories are within Edinburgh University, but we run our operational business from the UK Agri-Tech Centre’s Northern Innovation Hub, housing our offices and all of our production facilities: this is where we make everything and ship it—it is a very important place for us.”
