Phyto

What Phyto does

Phyto Corporation is a South Korea-based agri-tech and climate tech company founded in 2014 that has built a patented platform around Salicornia, a halophyte plant that thrives in seawater. The company cultivates Salicornia using seawater without freshwater, fertilizers, or pesticides, then processes the biomass through a proprietary desalination step to extract PhytoSalt (a 100% plant-extracted salt with 50% reduced sodium and an ideal 6:1 sodium-to-potassium ratio) while converting the desalted remainder into PhytoMeal (a flour alternative with 40% fewer calories and 70x more calcium than wheat flour). The company holds 38 patents across extraction, cultivation, and blue carbon capture technologies, and operates from its headquarters in Bucheon Techno Valley, South Korea with 11-50 employees.

The company operates a hybrid go-to-market across consumer products (PhytoSalt, PhytoMeal, MemoryTea, Salicornia sauces, teas, and dietary supplements), B2B ingredient supply (notably with Meat & Livestock Australia), and enterprise environmental services including blue carbon capture and circular brine valorization (notably with NEOM's ENOWA in Saudi Arabia). Consumer products are distributed through E-Mart, South Korea's largest supermarket chain, and through the company's own e-commerce site. Revenue streams span branded consumer food sales, B2B ingredient supply, carbon credits and environmental services tied to the claimed 205 tonnes CO₂ per hectare annual sequestration, and licensing of its patented processes.

Phyto serves four primary customer segments: food and beverage manufacturers seeking healthier clean-label ingredients and sodium-reduction solutions, health-conscious consumers pursuing functional foods and supplements, climate action and environmental markets seeking nature-based carbon removal at scale, and the agricultural sector interested in saline-tolerant crops. The company has accumulated third-party validation including Global Winner of the BC+ Challenge 2025 (co-led by Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and Hatch Blue), the StartupSG Prize at Future Food Asia 2019, and FoodNavigator-Asia's Top 10 F&B Start-Up designation in 2019.

Name

Phyto

Legal name

Phyto Corporation

Website

https://phytoco.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Phyto Corporation is a South Korea-based agri-tech company that converts Salicornia cultivated in seawater into PhytoSalt, PhytoMeal, and other functional foods, while providing blue carbon capture services. It serves food manufacturers, health-conscious consumers, and climate action markets using 38 patented technologies.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Plant-based food ingredients and blue carbon solutions

NAICS

Fruit and Vegetable Preserving and Specialty Food Manufacturing (3114), Fruit and Vegetable Canning, Pickling, and Drying (31142), Dried and Dehydrated Food Manufacturing (311423), Vegetable and Melon Farming (1112)

SIC

Food And Kindred Products (2000), Miscellaneous Food Preparations & Kindred Products (2090)

akta.pro primary industry

Asparagus, Artichoke & Specialty Vegetable Farming (Asparagus, Artichokes, Celery, Okra) (AFAGADAI)

Keywords

• Plant-based salt
• Blue carbon capture
• Salicornia cultivation
• Functional food ingredients
• Low-sodium ingredients

Headquarters

HQ city

Bucheon

HQ country

South Korea

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Technology or R&D, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Consumer Food Products: Sale of branded consumer products including PhytoSalt, PhytoMeal, MemoryTea, Salicornia sauces, and dietary supplements through retail stores and e-commerce. Products positioned as health-focused and sustainable alternatives.
2. B2B Ingredients: Supply of PhytoSalt and PhytoMeal as ingredients to food manufacturers and processors. Collaboration with Meat & Livestock Australia for 'Meat with Plant-Based Salt' product development.
3. Carbon Credits and Environmental Services: Blue carbon capture through large-scale Salicornia cultivation generates carbon credits. Partnership with NEOM's ENOWA for circular brine valorization and blue carbon technologies.
4. Technology Licensing: Licensing of proprietary Salicornia cultivation and processing technologies to partners. 38 patents covering PhytoSalt, PhytoMeal, Salicornia cultivation, and blue carbon capture technologies.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Phyto Corporation manufactures and sells Salicornia-derived food products—including PhytoSalt (the world's first 100% plant-extracted salt with 50% reduced sodium), PhytoMeal (a low-calorie, high-calcium Salicornia flour alternative), MemoryTea, Salicornia sauces, Salicornia tea, and Salicornia-based dietary supplements—distributed via E-Mart retail and the company's own e-commerce site. Concurrently, it operates Salicornia cultivation systems that sequester up to 205 tonnes of CO2 per hectare annually, providing nature-based blue carbon capture, carbon credits, and technology licensing through enterprise partnerships (NEOM ENOWA, Meat & Livestock Australia).

Product overview

Phyto Corporation offers a portfolio of Salicornia-based food products centered around its patented technology for extracting salt and food ingredients from Salicornia plants. The core offerings include PhytoSalt (the world's first 100% plant-based salt with 50% reduced sodium), PhytoMeal (a new superfood ingredient from desalted Salicornia biomass), MemoryTea (a memory enhancer drink), Salicornia Sauce, and Salicornia Tea. The company also develops blue carbon capture solutions using Salicornia cultivation for climate action.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• PhytoSalt: 100% plant-extracted salt derived from Salicornia with 50% reduced sodium, the world's first naturally low-sodium salt extracted from a salt-accumulating plant
• PhytoMeal
• MemoryTea
• PhytoSauce
• Salicornia Tea

Products and services

• PhytoSalt World's first 100% plant-based salt extracted from Salicornia, featuring 50% reduced sodium content compared to table salt and an ideal 6:1 sodium-to-potassium ratio. Contains mineral salts KCl, MgCl2, and CaCl2, and is microplastics-free due to Salicornia's natural cell membrane filtration. Marketed to consumers for sodium reduction and to food manufacturers as a clean-label salt alternative.
• PhytoMeal Desalted Salicornia biomass converted into a gluten-free, allergy-free superfood flour offering 40% fewer calories and 70 times more calcium than wheat flour. Rich in antioxidants and antithrombotic polyphenols. Can be mixed with wheat flour, cornflour, and rice flour for various food applications.
• MemoryTea Salicornia-based memory enhancer drink made from PhytoTea, sold at E-Mart (South Korea's largest supermarket chain) as a functional beverage for cognitive health.
• PhytoSauce (Salicornia Sauce) Salicornia-based sauce designed to reduce sodium intake while maintaining flavor, positioned as a low-sodium alternative to conventional sauces.
• Salicornia Tea (PhytoTea) Tea product derived from Salicornia plants, positioned as a dietary supplement.
• Salicornia-Based Dietary Supplement Salicornia-based dietary supplement formulated for body fat loss, leveraging the plant's nutritional profile.
• Blue Carbon Capture Service via Salicornia Cultivation Large-scale Salicornia cultivation system that sequesters up to 205 tonnes of CO2 per hectare annually through aboveground and belowground biomass, supporting carbon credit generation, coastal land regeneration, and circular brine valorization (in partnership with NEOM ENOWA).

Quantifiable outcome

• 205 tonnes CO₂ sequestered per hectare annually
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• NEOM ENOWAflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023NEOM's ENOWA partnered with Phyto Corporation to revolutionize eco-friendly circular brine valorization and blue carbon capture technologies through Salicornia cultivation. This strategic partnership focuses on sustainable approaches that regenerate degraded coastal lands and combat climate change while developing scalable nature-based carbon removal systems.
• Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023Phyto Corporation is collaborating with MLA, a global meat company, in the development of new superfoods made with Australian meat and Phyto Corporation's plant-based salt. The project 'Meat with Plant-Based Salt' represents a novel food product development combining animal protein with plant-based salt ingredients.
• TERRA (RocketSpace Innovation Accelerator)coreOthers · 1 January 2023Phyto Corporation was selected as a participant in TERRA Cohort IV in San Francisco, a global innovation accelerator fueling ground-breaking transformation in the food and agriculture industry. This participation provides access to ecosystem resources and potential partnerships.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Tate & Lyle: Global food ingredient and sweetener manufacturer with a major sodium-reduction and specialty-salt ingredient portfolio (e.g., SODA-LO, potassium chloride-based solutions). Comparable as a supplier of ingredient solutions to food manufacturers targeting reformulation, though Phyto operates at much smaller scale in a niche plant-based salt niche.
• Cargill: Global food and agriculture giant supplying salt, alternative proteins, and plant-based ingredients to food manufacturers. Comparable as a B2B ingredient supplier and as a partner-of-choice for agri-tech innovation programs (Cargill partners with multiple startup accelerators).
• Morton Salt (K+S / Compass Minerals): Large incumbent salt producers diversifying into low-sodium and specialty-salt product lines (e.g., Morton's Lite Salt). Operates in the same downstream product category as PhytoSalt but at industrial scale across grocery channels.
• Impossible Foods: Plant-based food company commercializing novel plant ingredients at consumer scale and pushing into ingredient licensing. Comparable as a fellow plant-based food innovator pursuing technology-led product differentiation and B2B ingredient partnerships.

Emerging players

• Capterio / 44.01: Climate-tech companies focused on scalable carbon removal and mineralization (44.01 operates in Oman with NEOM-adjacent deployments). Comparable as adjacent nature-based / mineral carbon-capture players pursuing deployment at similar geographies (Middle East) to Phyto.
• Indigo Ag: Agricultural carbon-credit and microbial agricultural-technology company monetizing carbon sequestration from farmland. Comparable as an agricultural-climate-tech venture combining crop-based sustainability claims with revenue from carbon-credit generation, similar to Phyto's blue-carbon economics.

Direct peers

• Running Tide: Nature-based ocean carbon removal startup cultivating macroalgae/kelp for blue carbon sequestration and carbon credit generation. Highly comparable to Phyto on the blue carbon / climate-tech side, with the key difference that Phyto pairs carbon removal with a food-ingredient monetization stream using halophytes.
• Nu-Salt (Dr. Paul Lohmann): Specialty potassium-chloride-based salt substitute manufacturer supplying low-sodium ingredients to food formulators. Most direct competitor to PhytoSalt on the ingredient functionality dimension (sodium reduction in food manufacturing), with established food-safety certifications and food-industry penetration.

Others

• Climeworks: Direct air carbon capture company developing scalable CO2 removal. Compares to Phyto on the climate-tech carbon-removal axis, though using engineered mechanical capture vs. Phyto's nature-based Salicornia approach; both sell carbon-removal outcomes to corporate buyers.

Regional players

• Zeewaar (Samphire): Dutch Salicornia (samphire) grower and food processor producing Salicornia ingredients and culinary products for European markets. Direct overlap in the raw Salicornia value chain, though oriented to fresh culinary applications rather than Phyto's salt-extraction, blue carbon, and flour applications.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/phytoco

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Phyto