The archive · AI & Models · Product decision · 2017–2022
NotCo's Giuseppe AI rebuilds animal foods from plants; $235M round, $1.5B unicorn
Chilean food-tech bet that AI can rebuild animal products from plants: NotMayo and NotMilk to a $1.5B valuation, then a Kraft Heinz joint venture
NotCo (The Not Company)
What the business is
AI-formulated plant-based foods: NotMilk, NotMayo, NotBurger, NotMeat and NotIceCream sold in the US, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico
Starting capital：$350M+ raised by July 2021, per CEO Matías Muchnick; backers included Tiger Global, Bezos Expeditions, General Catalyst, Kaszek, L Catterton and Danny Meyer's EHI (TechCrunch)
How it started
Founded in Santiago, Chile by Matías Muchnick, Karim Pichara and Pablo Zamora, NotCo built Giuseppe, a proprietary AI that searches thousands of plant ingredients for combinations matching the taste, smell and molecular profile of animal products. It launched with NotMayo and expanded into milk, ice cream and burgers (TechCrunch 2020).
What happened
NotBurger and NotMeat reached Burger King and Papa John's restaurants in Chile, where NotCo reported selling 48 sandwiches per store per day, a per-store figure it said outperformed Impossible Foods (TechCrunch 2020). An $85M round in 2020 at around a $300M valuation funded the US push; the $235M Series D in July 2021 at $1.5B made NotCo a unicorn with Tiger Global joining, and NotMilk was on track for 8,000 US retail locations by end-2021 (TechCrunch).
How it ended up
In February 2022 NotCo put its technology into The Kraft Heinz Not Company LLC, a joint venture controlled by Kraft Heinz, headquartered in Chicago with R&D in San Francisco, to develop plant-based versions of Kraft's global brands using Giuseppe — with the venture led by Lucho Lopez-May as CEO (contxto).
Background
NotCo started in Santiago, Chile with a contrarian read on plant-based food: the category's problem was not awareness or ethics but taste. Co-founders Matías Muchnick, Karim Pichara and Pablo Zamora built Giuseppe, a proprietary AI that learns the molecular profile of animal products — flavor, smell, color, mouthfeel — and searches thousands of plant ingredients for combinations that replicate the whole sensorial experience. The first proof point was NotMayo, launched in Chilean supermarkets, before the company expanded into milk, ice cream and burgers.
Distribution deals validated the approach early. Burger King and Papa John's in Chile put NotCo's NotBurger and NotMeat on their menus, and NotCo reported selling 48 sandwiches per store per day — a per-store figure its backers said beat Impossible Foods (TechCrunch 2020). An $85M round in September 2020 at roughly a $300M valuation funded expansion into the US, and the $235M Series D in July 2021, with Tiger Global participating, valued NotCo at $1.5B, making it a unicorn and the strongest brand in the Latin American plant-based market (TechCrunch).
The strategy always pointed beyond own-brand products. Muchnick told TechCrunch in 2020 that NotCo wanted to be 'the Intel inside of other products' — an enabler rather than just a consumer brand. That ambition landed in February 2022, when NotCo announced The Kraft Heinz Not Company LLC, a joint venture controlled by Kraft Heinz, based in Chicago with R&D in San Francisco, to develop plant-based versions of the CPG giant's global brands around Giuseppe's formulation engine, with Lucho Lopez-May as its first CEO (contxto).
What has to be true
- NotCo attacked taste, the actual adoption blocker, instead of competing on price or sustainability messaging.
- Giuseppe's data flywheel compounded: every failed recipe improved the model, so each new category (milk, then ice cream, then meat) shipped faster than the last.
- Aim at dairy, a multi-billion-dollar category where quality, not novelty, decides the winner — a bigger beachhead than niche alternatives.
- The JV gave NotCo scale without fighting retailers for shelf space: Kraft Heinz's brands and distribution carried NotCo's AI into mainstream American refrigerators.
What can be applied
When taste is the blocker, spend on the R&D loop, not the message: Giuseppe turned every failed recipe into training data, so new products shipped closer to right than trial-and-error.
Aftermath
As of early 2022 NotCo, still private, operated in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and the US, with NotMilk heading toward 8,000 US retail locations by the end of 2021 and the newly launched Kraft Heinz Not Company JV gearing up to apply Giuseppe to Kraft Heinz's brand portfolio (TechCrunch, contxto).
Sources
- NotCo gets its horn following $235M round to expand plant-based food products
- Competing with both Perfect Day and Beyond Meat, Chile's NotCo raises $85 million to expand to the US
- The Not Company, a maker of plant-based meat and dairy substitutes in Chile, will soon be worth $250M
- NotCo and Kraft Heinz Enter into a Joint Venture for a Foodtech Company
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