NotCo, the fast-growing food tech company with a patented A.I. technology, Giuseppe, announced it has closed $70M in new funding as a Series D1. The new capital will catapult the company’s new B2B Unit which will enable other CPG brands, ingredient suppliers and technology providers to leverage Giuseppe for their own innovation purposes and exponentially accelerate the transformation of the plant-based industry. NotCo will continue to operate its branded business, NotCo Food, offering products like NotMilk™, NotBurger™ and NotChicken™ through retail and food service businesses nationwide.
Led by Princeville Capital, an investment firm focused on backing rapidly growing technology-related companies around the world, the Series D1 includes industry-leading existing backers, including Jeff Bezos through Bezos Expeditions, Tiger Global, L Catterton, Kaszek Ventures, Future Positive and The Craftory. Apart from Princeville Capital, new investors to the Series D1 include Marcos Galperin, founder and CEO of the largest Latin American tech company, MercadoLibre. The new financing round was completed at the same share price of the Series D financing in July 2021, reaffirming NotCo's valuation of $1.5 billion.
Beyond its exponential growth, NotCo is best known for revolutionizing the plant-based space through its proprietary technology, which holds 12 patents in US for its ability to recreate the same experience (taste, texture, functionality, and even smell) of animal-based foods, using only plant-based ingredients. NotCo has already demonstrated success in licensing its patented tech through the newly created Joint Venture, The Kraft Heinz Not Company, which was designed to reimagine global food production towards a more sustainable future by creating democratic plant-based versions of Kraft’s iconic products.
Through its new B2B platform, NotCo is making its technology available for more food and beverage manufacturers seeking to create best-in-class and scalable plant-based products. In addition to delivering a superior eating experience, NotCo’s AI technology offers the added benefits of extreme accuracy and speed, cutting R&D development timelines down to mere months compared to what traditionally has taken years.
In 2019, the then early-stage Chilean startup got the attention of the international tech community when it became the first investment of Bezos Expedition in Latin America. Since then, NotCo has been on an upward trajectory, transforming the food industry and the plant-based food segment, forming international partnerships with Burger King, Shake Shack, Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, and attracting celebrity investors like Roger Federer, Lewis Hamilton and Questlove.
