Three Chileans taught an AI named Giuseppe to reverse-engineer a hamburger using only plants. NotCo's AI analyzes the molecular structure of animal foods and finds plant combinations that replicate the taste — and they claim it works better than anything Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods has made. Jeff Bezos personally invested. Tiger Global invested. Kraft Heinz created a joint venture with them. The plant-based category is in a slump (Beyond Meat's stock is down 95%), but NotCo's bet is that the previous generation of plant-based food simply was not good enough. If AI can make plant-based food that actually tastes like the real thing — not "close enough" but indistinguishable — the market will come back. That is a $1.5 billion bet on artificial intelligence solving the oldest problem in food.
Founded
2015
HQ
Santiago, Chile
Total Raised
$435 million
Founder
Matias Muchnick, Karim Pichara, Pablo Zamora
Status
Private (valued at $1.5B as of 2022)
Website
notco.comTHE ORIGIN STORY
Three Chilean founders — Matias Muchnick (entrepreneur), Karim Pichara (AI scientist), and Pablo Zamora (biochemist) — founded NotCo in Santiago in 2015. Their insight: instead of trying to engineer plant-based meat from scratch, use AI to analyze animal products at the molecular level and find plant combinations that taste identical.
The AI "Giuseppe" (named after Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, known for paintings made of fruits and vegetables) analyzes thousands of plant ingredients and finds novel combinations. NotCo launched in Chile first, then expanded to Brazil, Argentina, the US, and Canada.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
NotCo uses AI (called "Giuseppe") to analyze the molecular structure of animal-based foods and recreate them using only plant-based ingredients. The AI finds combinations of plants that replicate the taste, texture, and appearance of meat, milk, and other animal products.
Products include NotMilk, NotBurger, NotChicken, and NotIceCream. Revenue comes from retail sales in supermarkets across Latin America, the US, and Canada.
Launched a joint venture with Kraft Heinz in 2023.
THE PRODUCTS
NotMilk (plant-based milk), NotBurger (plant-based burger), NotChicken (plant-based chicken), NotIceCream, The Kraft Heinz Not Company (JV)
HOW THEY GREW
Use AI-driven R&D as a competitive advantage to create plant-based products that actually taste good — better than Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. The Kraft Heinz joint venture (called The Kraft Heinz Not Company) gives NotCo access to Kraft Heinz's massive distribution network.
The strategy: win on taste through AI, then scale through big food partnerships.
THE HARD PART
The plant-based meat cooldown. After explosive growth in 2019-2021, the entire plant-based category has slowed.
Beyond Meat stock dropped 95%. Consumers tried plant-based alternatives and many went back to real meat.
NotCo must prove its AI-optimized products taste better than competitors and can sustain consumer interest when the category headwinds are strong.
MONEY TRAIL
Series B
2020 · Led by
$85M raised
Series D
2021 · Led by
$235.0B raised
Kraft Heinz JV
2023 · Led by
$0 raised
WHO BACKED THEM
Tiger Global, SoftBank Latin America Fund, Jeff Bezos (personal), Future Positive Capital, L Catterton
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