By
Chimamanda U. Martha
January 16th, 2024
The plant-based food company provides healthy alternatives to animal-based food products. NotCo is all set to become the first Chilean Unicorn in its upcoming IPO.
Chile-based food tech company backed by Jeff Bezos NotCo has raised $235 million in its recent round of funding, joining the unicorn club with a $1.5 billion valuation. The funding round was a star-studded affair with sports celebrities like Lewis Hamilton and Roger Federer taking part.
The plant-based food company provides healthy alternatives to animal-based food products. The company claims to combine Artificial Intelligence and Deep Science to revive food and consequently, reduce the carbon footprint significantly. At present, NotCo is Latin America’s fastest-growing food company. With the new money raised through the recent round of funding, NotCo plans to expand its venture to Asia and Europe.
Matias Muchnick, the co-founder, and CEO of NotCo explains that several corporations have requested NotCo to design plant-based interpretations of their products. Muchnick suggests that this way they could create an ‘Intel Inside’ of products of various other companies. The company has set up operations in 5 nations in the Americas, namely the US, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Columbia. NotCo has been planning to sponsor and explore its AI technology Giuseppe with the money raised. Giuseppe is an algorithm that enables the pairing of infinite combinations of plants to mirror the taste and appearance of animal foods.
Early in January this year, Bezos-backed company had received an investment of about $130 million in a previous round of funding. While it was led by Enlightened Hospitality Investments (EHI) in the last round, the recent round was led by Tiger Global. The other investors included venture capital firm DFJ Growth Fund and social impact foundation ZOMA.
Because of the pandemic, there is a sudden surge in the demand for healthy and environment-friendly alternatives to food. People are spending their money on plant-based supplements as awareness of healthy habits is high. After the fame gathered by companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, the world is witnessing many new firms launching their own renditions of plant-based foods.
In comparison to 2019, the investment in the plant-based foods market escalated to $1.7 billion in 2020 and is projected to skyrocket to $8 billion by the end of this year. NotCo has been awarded the number one Latin American spot on Fast Company’s list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies this year. The company is all set to become the first Chilean Unicorn in its upcoming IPO.
According to CEO Muchnick, switching to a plant-based diet doesn’t mean you have to make sacrifices to your food palette. With their AI technology Giuseppe, the taste is not a barrier. Muchnick explains that the taste of a NotCo product is similar, and therefore, there is nearly no trade-off between the palette and your health.