Harnessing Data for Climate Action: Koantek’s Strategic Support to Funga’s Carbon Sequestration Goals

In today’s world, fighting climate change is more than just a mission; it requires fast, accurate, and reliable data. That’s exactly what Funga, an innovative climate-tech startup, needed when they partnered with Koantek.

Funga is pursuing a transformative mission to restore forest soil health, boost biodiversity, and increase carbon sequestration in commercial pine plantations. By combining cutting-edge mycology, DNA sequencing, and machine learning, Funga identifies the most beneficial native fungal communities, mycorrhizae, and inoculates degraded soils, helping trees grow faster, stronger, and more resilient. As a result, Funga is enabling the growth of higher-quality forests, supporting healthier ecosystems, and generating measurable carbon credits.

But building a data-driven ecological solution takes more than scientific breakthroughs; it demands a modern data foundation.

Despite their scientific expertise, Funga’s existing data pipelines were slowing progress. A single DNA sequence analysis could take up to 4 hours. Kicking off workflows required 20 minutes. Even minor schema changes triggered full reprocessing. Frequent manual interventions, inconsistent data validation, and limited visibility made scaling difficult, especially as data volumes and operations grew.

Funga didn’t just need a faster system; they needed a scalable, governed, and dependable platform to support their climate impact at scale. That’s where Koantek came in.

Engineering a Platform for Environmental Impact

Koantek approached the engagement with a focused objective to simplify and modernize Funga’s data workflows while embedding automation, quality checks, and governance at the core.

The first step was a complete re-architecture of their pipeline. We migrated their workflows from an R-based setup to a scalable, modular Python-based framework, unlocking greater speed, reusability, and flexibility. To strengthen data quality, we introduced YAML-driven QA/QC modules that automatically flagged anomalies, schema mismatches, and missing values. These automated checks replaced manual reviews, reducing human error and accelerating turnaround times.

After understanding the need for agility, we engineered the system to support schema evolution without requiring full data rebuilds. This design saved valuable compute resources and ensured faster, more seamless updates.

At the governance level, we integrated Databricks Unity Catalog to manage data access, enforce role-based controls, and maintain end-to-end lineage. We also deployed real-time dashboards to give stakeholders instant visibility into KPIs and pipeline performance, eliminating the need for backend support for routine insights.

Impact: Fast, Reliable, and Future-Ready

The impact was both immediate and transformative. Funga’s workflow speed improved by 90%, with initialization times plummeting from 20 minutes to under 30 seconds. The new QA/QC module flagged more than 30,000 previously undetected data issues, enabling early intervention and improved data integrity. Manual intervention was significantly reduced, and compute resources were optimized through streamlined orchestration and the elimination of redundant reprocessing steps.

Most importantly, the platform is now scalable and AI-ready. Funga can seamlessly onboard new data sources, accommodate schema changes without disruption, and rely on validated, traceable data-critical enablers for advanced modeling and scientific discovery.

Building a Data Platform to Combat Climate Change

Funga’s vision goes beyond forests; it’s about transforming how we restore ecosystems using science and data. With a modern platform, they can now make faster, more confident decisions that directly support carbon capture and biodiversity.

For organizations tackling climate change, bioinformatics, or life sciences, the message is clear: you don’t have to trade trust for speed, or science for scalability. With the right architecture and automation, data becomes your most powerful tool for impact.

At Koantek, we believe data pipelines should do more than just move the data, they should drive insights, efficiency, and create an impact, instead of standing in their way.

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