Contxto – Chile’s favorite foodtech startup, The Not Company, might just become Latin America’s next media star.
Back in 2019, YouTube’s newest series, The Age of AI, hosted by Iron Man himself, reached out to NotCo in order to participate as one of the startups to be featured in the eight-episode series.
The Age of AI seeks to portray and explore the impact machine intelligence will have over humanity and our daily lives.
Whether Robert Downey Jr. was channeling Tony Stark or vice versa, it’s certainly interesting timing when it comes to the actor’s sudden interest in technology. Anyways, the program is still worth talking about, and honestly, I’m quite thrilled about it.
In that regard, NotCo makes perfect sense due to its sophisticated use of an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm called Giuseppe. This Italian-sounding chap is, in fact, the reason why The Not Company is able to replicate the molecular structure of animal-based ingredients and turn them into a vegan alternative.
They made the connection through Google, we are one of their suppliers. We are in the episode where there are three other stories and we are the middle one, as the main segment.
PABLO ZAMORA, CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER, IN DIARIO FINANCIERO.
The show’s production crew traveled all the way to Chile in order to record over three consecutive days in the company’s headquarters, in order to “challenge NotCo’s tech.”
As a matter of fact, different dishes were cooked by a group of chefs using the ingredients designed by the algorithm. These ranged from the classic NotMayo to other not-yet-launched products such as the tuna and steak replicas.
According to the founder, they were the only Latin American startup, “Perhaps (there’s another one) in Mexico, but they didn’t mention it,” continued the executive.
Robert Downey Jr. didn’t actually travel to Chile, but he did send his greetings to the NotCo team.
According to another co-founder, Karim Pichara, the media attention is going to position the company as a world-class high tech company. “We’re the first company to develop AI for food science, and we generate the necessary data to train Giuseppe in our lab.” Sounds like tasty data.
Along with Brazilian Fazenda Futuro, NotCo is one of the few Latin American contenders to win over the real-meat-taste-like-but-actually-vegan-meat market. Other international players include Beyond Burgers and Impossible Meat.
It’s been one year since Jeff Bezos initially participated in the US$30 million Series B round, and now the startup is already planning out its next funding round. You guessed it, its Series C. The plan is to roll-out the products in the US market. For that reason, they’re evaluating terms with several funds and investors.
But don’t take my word for it, take Tony Stark’s and watch the episode here!
Related articles: Tech and startups in Chile!
Wanna hear more? We recommend you listen to the following podcast episode: Cambio de reglas para las fintech argentinas y el llamado al estrellato de Notco. You can find the time stamp available in the description.
-VC
