EDINBURGH, Scotland — Rhizocore Technologies, a biotechnology company which 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 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. …Rhizocore, which spun out from the University of Edinburgh and Deep Science Venture’s Food & Agriculture Science Transformer programme in 2021, now operates across more than 100 active field sites.