Phytoresearch, a Korean seedling foundry startup, successfully attracted seed investment from the first Jeonbuk regional innovation impact investment fund of Merry Year Social Company (MYSC) and Crypton within two months of its establishment. Phytoresearch is a company that produces virus-free, high-quality seedlings through a next-generation tissue culture process. They have been recognized for their technology by applying the ‘seedling foundry’ process to produce high-quality, disease-free seedlings of various crops.

Phytoresearch received the grand prize at NHarvestX, the largest demo day in the agricultural and food sector hosted by the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation and the Korea Youth Foundation in 2023. This recognition came during the preliminary stage of their business startup. They also received the highest amount of support from the first youth startup support project in 2023. Currently, they are expanding their business by receiving orders to produce seedlings of over 20 varieties, with an initial volume of over 3 million plants across various crop fields such as fruit trees and flowers.

MYSC, which led the investment, stated, “As climate change worsens globally, we are faced with new problems arising in various areas such as agriculture and health. Therefore, we paid attention to Phytoresearch’s solutions.” Phytoresearch’s solution maximizes quality competitiveness by preventing the problem of medium contamination caused by nutrient solutions, which was a weakness of existing plant tissue culture and plant factories. In addition, it has a database of over 1,900 culture recipes that can be used immediately, allowing mass production of high value-added crops.

Phytoresearch was selected for EMA-AGRIFOOD, a 2024 agri-food technology startup accelerator support project hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, organized by the Korea Agricultural Technology Promotion Agency, and operated by MYSC. They plan to address the crisis of regional extinction in the agri-food industry under the theme of impact and globalization, and tackle the accelerating climate change both domestically and internationally.

Kim Yeon-jun, CEO of Phytoresearch, said, “We aim to grow into a leading seed company in the green bio field by applying the next-generation tissue culture process to seed production, which is an agricultural semiconductor, and reducing costs while driving quality innovation.” He added, “With this investment, we will establish ourselves as a successful agricultural and food startup and contribute to the growth of the Korean agricultural sector as a young entrepreneur.”