June. 13, 2025

Empowering Climate Solutions Through Co-Creation: NEC Transfers Patent to Singaporean Startup
～Driving Innovation in Sustainable Forestry Investments with NEC’s Patent～

NEC continues to support the growth of startups that address social challenges by utilizing its intellectual property. In April 2025, NEC transferred one of its patents to AGROTREE Ledger, a Singapore-based startup developing a platform that combines blockchain and satellite technology to bring greater transparency and liquidity in agroforestry investments.

We spoke with Yohan Brizolier, Co-Founder and CEO of AGROTREE, to learn more about the company's mission, the significance of the NEC patent, and his vision for the future.

Company Overview of AGROTREE

AGROTREE develops and provides a blockchain-based platform that tokenizes real world trees into digital twins using satellite imagery and IoT. Each tree is linked with real-time data, such as CO₂ sequestration and growth metrics, enabling investors to monitor and trade forest assets with more transparency and flexibility. By solving the illiquidity and lack of visibility in traditional forestry investments, AGROTREE is helping facilitate private capital flow into climate-positive initiatives.

Gaining Competitive Advantage with NEC’s Patent

What kind of competitive edge do you expect to gain in terms of market differentiation and scalability through the transfer of NEC’s patent?

Acquiring NEC’s patent has significantly enhanced our market differentiation and scalability. In particular, NEC’s precise object identification technology enables us to perform three-level analytics using satellite imagery with unprecedented accuracy.
This level of precision allows us to estimate tree size and evaluate biomass density—dramatically improving investment transparency and environmental impact verification, two major challenges for investors in sustainable forestry.
As a result, the integration has positioned AGROTREE Ledger as a trusted leader in the field, offering unmatched data credibility and enabling rapid expansion into new geographic markets.

Integrating NEC’s Technology into Your Platform

How do you plan to incorporate NEC’s technology into your investment platform?

We plan to integrate NEC’s patented technology into our investment platform in three distinct ways:
First, enhanced asset verification. By utilizing NEC’s satellite-based precise object identification technology, we can provide investors with real-time and accurate verification of forestry assets, such as tree growth rates and biomass density, directly addressing their need for transparency.
Second, improved risk assessment. NEC’s technology provides superior analytical and risk scoring capabilities, allowing our platform to deliver actionable insights, reduce risks, and optimize returns for our investors.
Third, scalable expansion. NEC’s precision technology allows us to efficiently and rapidly onboard and monitor large-scale agroforestry projects across Africa and Southeast Asia, all while maintaining high standards of data integrity and investor confidence.

Why Choose Co-Creation Over In-House Development?

Your team could potentially develop your own intellectual property. Why did you decide to use NEC’s patent instead? Do you believe acquiring NEC’s patent has had a positive impact on your brand and your role in addressing social issues?

My co-founder Tabita, our CTO, and the rest of the team are all certainly highly capable. But through this transfer, NEC’s highly trusted and proven patent allows us to accelerate integration and improve our credibility.
To provide a structural overview of how the patent is integrated into our overall platform design, our platform is built on blockchain technology and we specifically utilize NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Why NFTs? Because we believe each tree is a unique, non-fungible asset with its own specific data. We then record this information as metadata within each NFT.
NEC’s patent is central to processing the satellite imagery we receive from our suppliers. It helps generate the metadata that gets directly embedded into each NFT. The image recognition capability powered by NEC’s technology enhances the accuracy of our analysis, and all this data is linked to the corresponding NFTs.

Vision for a Sustainable Future

Could you share your long-term vision for AGROTREE?

Yohan CEO:
Our long-term vision is to become the global leader in blockchain-driven agroforestry and nature-based solutions and we strive to make a significant contribution to reforestation and climate resilience efforts worldwide.
Participating in the NEC patent transfer program has accelerated our innovation cycle and strengthened both our R&D capabilities and our presence in the market. This initiative also opens the door to valuable strategic partnerships globally, expanding our platform’s impact and reach.
By continuously integrating advanced technologies like NEC’s, AGROTREE Ledger is uniquely positioned to scale sustainability and drive global investment into nature-based solutions.
Ultimately, our goal is to lead the transition toward a forestry investment landscape that is more transparent, liquid, and socially responsible.

Tabita, Co-Founder:
I am truly excited to work toward a future where trees are seen as valuable assets, and we can bring liquidity to illiquid natural resources. This is a powerful program, and we look forward to continuing this journey with all of you.

Through open innovation and strategic patent transfers, NEC continues to empower startups that are solving critical social and environmental challenges. Moving forward, NEC will further accelerate its efforts to support social implementation across fields such as sustainability, ESG, and environmental management.

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