Code of Nature has been selected for Series Ventures' G-StRONG Innovation Startup Fund, specializing in rapid soil restoration. Their moss spore cultivation kit accelerates forest recovery by preventing desertification, retaining moisture, and facilitating tree reproduction in impacted areas.
Code of Nature, led by CEO Jae-Hong Park, has garnered investment for its ongoing research focused on restoring forest environments using the reproductive capabilities of moss.
This investment has been facilitated through the G-StRONG Innovation Startup Fund, which is jointly operated by Series Ventures and the Gyeongnam Creative Economy Innovation Center, specifically targeting startups in the Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam regions.
With global carbon emissions from wildfires reaching all-time highs as of August, the urgency surrounding climate change is escalating. For instance, the Dixie Fire in Northern California last July burned 40 square kilometers (about 12.1 million acres), while large-scale wildfires in Australia, Canada, and China have severely damaged forests, leading to soaring CO2 emissions and lethal heatwaves.
The destruction and recovery of forests due to wildfires have become a pressing global issue, with rapidly increasing demand for forest restoration. In South Korea, which is predominantly mountainous (70% of the land), finding effective restoration solutions has proven challenging. Code of Nature's cost-effective, eco-friendly forest restoration kit has drawn notable attention in this context.
Common restoration methods include "transplant restoration," which requires ongoing management for the transplanted trees, which have a survival rate of only 15-20%, and typically take at least 30 years to recover. On the other hand, "neglect-based restoration," which waits for natural recovery after a wildfire, can take over 100 years and risks additional damage.
Code of Nature’s Forest Recovery Kit with Moss (FRK-M) is composed of a spore cultivation solution containing moss spores, nutrient solutions, and plant hormones, which are preserved in a dormant state. In the event of a disaster, this compound can be sprayed over affected forest areas.
As the applied moss mixture rapidly grows, it halts soil desertification and retains moisture by capturing mist and dew. Successfully established mosses also fix nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil, thereby accelerating the restoration of forest environments and facilitating the root growth and reproduction of newly sprouted trees.
This recovery method reduces restoration time by 30% compared to traditional solutions and decreases the labor needed per hectare by 70%, ultimately lowering costs to one-seventh of previous methods, according to Code of Nature.
Previously recognized for its technological innovation, Code of Nature received the Minister of Economy and Finance Award in 2019 and the Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs Award at the F-Startup competition last year, hosted by the Korea Forest Service.
Jae-Hong Park, CEO of Code of Nature, stated, “Wildfires pose a significant disaster that threatens the lives of citizens and require tremendous efforts to restore affected areas. This investment will enable us to establish a framework that actively responds to the needs of forest restoration specialists, government departments both domestically and internationally, and the global market.”
Park Joon-sang, CEO of Series Ventures, who led the investment, remarked, “Code of Nature is a locally based startup discovered through the 'Technology Innovation Startup Mentoring' program at Korea Maritime and Ocean University’s Inno-Polis Campus. They possess excellent technology that can be competitive in the global market, and we believe in their potential for future growth, which is why we decided to invest.”
