Chilean food tech unicorn NotCo has offloaded its Brazilian business and reportedly shuttered its division in Mexico as part of its shift from plant-based manufacturing to AI-led product development.
Three months after agreeing to sell its business in Argentina and Uruguay, NotCo has now moved out of two other Latin American countries.
The Chilean unicorn, which made its name with plant-based dairy and meat products, has sold its Brazilian arm to investment group Ferrara, owner of a portfolio of natural food brands in Brazil and the US.
“This marks the beginning of a new stage that will accelerate the expansion and scale of NotCo’s brand and innovation throughout Brazil, enhanced by a great distribution capacity at a national and international level, knowledge of the local market and synergies with its businesses,” the company said in a LinkedIn post.
Simultaneously, NotCo has reportedly closed its Mexican business, according to Chilean newspaper Diario Financiero, which said the company couldn’t find buyers due to “poor results”.
The developments come as the firm pivots from food production to a product development partner powered by an artificial intelligence (AI) platform.
Chile is the only market that NotCo is directly managing its business in now, and even that could be on the chopping block, with sources telling Diario Financiero that if its home operations don’t become profitable by the end of the year, there’s a possibility of a sale.
Going all in on AI-driven product development
AI has been embedded into NotCo’s business from day one. It was founded in 2015 and is best known for its flagship product Not Milk range, which promises to close the flavour gap with dairy through ingredients like pea protein, coconut oil, and cabbage and pineapple concentrates.
Not Milk was built out of the firm’s AI platform, Giuseppe, which analyses the molecular structure of animal proteins to identify the most suitable combination of plant-based ingredients that could replicate their flavour, texture, and functionality.
The AI system enabled NotCo to dramatically slash product development timelines and costs, with the firm unveiling a wide suite of plant-based alternatives in markets across the Americas, including burgers, breaded chicken, chorizo, protein bars, cheese, mayo, ice creams, and even a GLP-1 booster.
Its success attracted investments worth over $350M over several rounds, from backers including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, culminating in a Series D round that valued NotCo at $1.5B and made it Chile’s first unicorn.
Over the last couple of years, NotCo has been divesting from plant-based manufacturing to become a tech company that licences its AI software to some of the world’s largest companies – think Nestlé, Barry Callebaut, PepsiCo, Mars, and Mondelēz International – to develop better products faster.
The AI platform is designed to complement the work of food scientists, chefs, and product developers, from concept creation all the way to the final version of the formula. Doubling down on this front, NotCo shut its original website earlier this year, replacing it with one for its NotCo AI division.
NotCo’s sales come with layoffs in multiple markets
NotCo’s pivot began in 2024 with the US and Canada, where it handed over its business to Kraft Heinz, with which it had co-produced animal-free alternatives to classics like the blue-box mac and cheese and Oscar Mayer hot dogs. Then, in June this year, its Argentina and Uruguay business was acquired by food giant Molinos Río de la Plata.
The company closed its New York office in 2025, and has cut back its global workforce from a peak of over 300 employees to fewer than 100 today. According to Diario Financiero, in July, it laid off around 20 staffers in the R&D, kitchen, AI and marketing teams in Chile and the US.
In Brazil, NotCo reportedly had 30 employees under contract until the end of September, but the sale to Ferrara doesn’t include a transfer of the team.
The company celebrated the deal as a “milestone”, recognising “a team of talented people who, with conviction and hard work, launched the ambitious project of building a disruptive brand that proposed a new way of thinking, doing and feeding, and that managed to conquer millions of Brazilian consumers who today choose it daily”.
In a LinkedIn post, co-founder and CEO Matias Muchnick said he was “very calm and happy” about the sale, noting his gratification at seeing a Chilean company “born and grow (in full view of all consumers and clients) and position itself […] as the second-largest national player in plant-based beverages”. “It’s unprecedented. And that must continue,” he stated.
Separately, in May, Chile’s Supreme Court ended a five-year legal battle between NotCo and the local dairy industry, allowing NotCo to continue using the name ‘NotMilk’ while instructing it to remove the word ‘milk’ and any related imagery from its packaging.
The firm’s fate in Brazil and Mexico is part of a larger trend of consolidation in the alternative protein industry. Green Queen’s analysis shows that more than 85 companies have been acquired, merged, gone bankrupt, or shut down in the last 24 months.
Green Queen has contacted NotCo for comment.
