Leo Prieto (front left) and the Lemu team.

Technology is all about networks, but it’s rare to find a technology inspired by mycelium networks. Mycelium are the tiny threads produced by fungus that wrap around tree roots and bore into them. They connect individual plants and trees together to transfer water, minerals like nitrogen and carbon, and even to communicate, in a reminder that all of nature is interconnected.

Lemu is a startup founded by Leo Prieto, an entrepreneur in Chile with a few companies to his credit. While some of his team are based in Santiago, there are no physical offices and its members work from nine countries on three continents. Their mission is to create an ‘atlas of the biosphere’ to bring nature online, then monitor and reverse its degradation.