March 8, 2019

Chilean plant-based food startup NotCo has closed a $30 million funding round led by London-based The Craftory, and including Bezos Expedition, the family office investment arm of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, MAYA CAPITAL, and return investors Kaszek Ventures and IndieBio.

This marks the first investment in Latin America for Bezos. And although the company valuation associated with the round was not disclosed, this funding is the third round secured by NotCo. With the capital raised through this latest round, NotCo plans to fund the release of new products, including plant-based milk, yogurt, and ice cream, and to expand into new geographical markets such as Mexico and the U.S., where the company expects to have operations established by 2020.

“We are thrilled to be working with Matías and the NotCo team as they transform the food production industry and give people the choice to consume environmentally conscious products,” said The Craftery, the $300 million mission-driven fund responsible for more than 60 percent of the funding in this round.

Founded four years ago in Santiago by biotech engineer Matías Muchnick, biochemist Pablo Zamora, and computer scientist Karim Pichara, NotCo produces plant-based alternative milk, ice cream, and mayonnaise. But what sets NotCo apart is “Guiseppe”, a tech platform that intersects food tech, AI, and plant-based ingredients to identify plant-based proteins that can perfectly mimic their animal protein counterparts. This use of machine learning, combined with AI and the company’s proprietary ingredient dataset, can create product recipes that result in vegan foods that perfectly match animal protein-based products in texture, flavor, function, mouth-feel, color, and smell, while maintaining sustainability and nutritional requirements.

“We have a very aggressive plan that will allow us to fulfill our mission of generating real impact in our society,” said Matias Muchnick, co-founder and CEO of The NotCo.  “The world can’t scale anymore with the food industry operating as it is today. We are working relentlessly to lead the food revolution and be the spearhead of a sustainable planet.”

“NotCo’s unique technology has proven that it is possible to truly disrupt the food industry, with better and more sustainable products that people actually love,” said Nicolas Szekasy, managing partner, Kaszek Ventures.

NotCo.’s lead product is a garbanzo bean-based mayonnaise alternative. Currently it is being sold in 1,000 stores across Chile including WalMart, Cencosud, Tottus, and Unimarc. This is a significant achievement considering that Chile is ranked ninth in the world for per capita consumption of mayonnaise, according to Euromonitor. The product is also being launched in Brazil – where the company has a standing agreement with retail giant Pao de Acucar – and Argentina.

“NotMayo has become the fastest growing product in its category, reaching 10 percent of market share as to December 2018,” said Juan Pablo Valdes, head of Food Business Development at Cencosud Supermarkets, NotCo’s first client in Latin America. “Consumers tell us that they love that the product tastes like excellent mayo, but is affordable and produced by a purpose-driven company.”

This is the second time within a month that GAI News has mentioned a deal where a startup is using AI in application to food ingredients. In mid-February Israel food tech startup Tastewise announced the launch of its AI-powered intelligence platform designed to predict rapidly changing food trends and consumer tastes.

“Trends and consumer insights need to be a lot more dynamic in the food industry because otherwise there is going to a be lot of missed opportunities,” company founder Alon Chen told Food Dive. “If it will take you six months to run a survey and then, based on the survey, analyze it and then get insights, and only then go for production or change your menu, then all of this planning, you are building for a trend that already happened six months ago.”

-Lynda Kiernan