Jeff Bezos and other funds to invest US$30 million in Chilean mayonnaise startup

Contxto – The Not Company is making headlines again.

What’s different this time? Well, last time we covered them, Jeff Bezos wasn’t part of its cap table. That’s quite newsworthy, I must say.

So, just to give you a little bit of background. The Not Company is a Chilean-based startup that develops and produces vegan alternatives to pre-existing foods and beverages, including mayonnaise, milk and cheese.

The startup imitates the exact same flavors and textures of non-vegan ingredients and produces them exclusively from plants.

The company prides itself in not only being a food manufacturing company but also a tech startup. As we mentioned before in our previous article, its success is mainly due to its “Giuseppe” proprietary algorithm. AI technology identifies the molecular structure of specific foods through machine learning technology. With its algorithm the startup is able to identify plant-based alternatives to animal-derived ingredients.

Keeping its capital as fresh as its ingredients

The sprouting startup quickly grabbed the attention of Bezos Expeditions that is participating in this current investment round with other institutional investors such as Kaszek Ventures, The Craftory and IndieBio.

According to Crunchbase, the company previously held two funding rounds. During this time, Kaszek and IndieBio made initial investments, thus following through a third time.

The new capital worth US$30 million will fund the company’s expansion throughout Latin America.

NotCo also plans to use the resources to better position the brand in the U.S. and Mexican market, and subsequently venturing into Brazil, Argentina and Colombia.

Thoughts

Now, I’m not saying Jeff Bezos isn’t a good guy, but I’m sure he saw more in the company than just some healthy, delicious vegan mayo.

Honestly, developing an algorithm able to dig deep into the molecular structure of certain organic compounds, deciphering them and then finding alternatives that fulfill similar characteristics in order to create a perfect replica of the existing product, is no easy task. So, I assume he saw a lot of potential alternative applications. As a bonus, now he can eat all the vegan mayo he desires.

-VC