Guru ENT Wins SME Technology Market Certification for Drone-and-Seed-Ball Restoration Method

Guru ENT (구루이엔티), an ecological restoration technology company, said on July 1 that its "drone-based slope revegetation method" had received certification from the SME Technology Market.

The SME Technology Market is a government scheme under which public institutions verify and register technologies and products from small and medium-sized enterprises to help them sell into public procurement.

Certified companies can pitch their technology to public institutions nationwide through a single platform, and the scheme is linked to preferential purchasing rules for public bodies, which the company says widens the practical route into the public market for verified technologies.

The certification marks a case in which a restoration method combining drones with functional seed balls has been recognised as a public-sector technology. Guru ENT said it plans to use it to move into public procurement and the ecological restoration market.

The method is an ecological restoration technique that uses drones to scatter functional seed balls.

It was developed to allow efficient restoration of damaged sites that are hard to reach, including areas burned by wildfire, steep slopes, land damaged by mining and quarries.

Guru ENT has applied the technology at various forest restoration sites, including Hyundai Motor's "IONIQ Forest" project, and has tested its field performance and usability in cooperation with the Korea Arboreta and Gardens Institute, the state body that manages national arboretums and gardens.

In a preliminary review by the institute's technical assessment panel, carried out ahead of the certification, all three reviewers judged the method suitable.

The reviewers cited its use of advanced technology for conserving and restoring forest biodiversity; the construction efficiency and in-house production capability that come from revegetating slopes with drones rather than deployed labour; and its broad potential application in restoration and conservation work.

"This certification is significant in that it is the restoration method itself, not a product, that has been recognised as a public-sector technology," said Shim Jae-yong, chief executive of Guru ENT. "We will continue to advance our ecological restoration technology and demonstrate it in the field, and grow into a company that leads the domestic ecological restoration industry."