This seemed to be a good year for the Chilean foodtech NotCo, founded by Matías Muchnick, Karim Pichara and Pablo Zamora in 2015. In mid-2021 they reached the category of unicorn – a company valued at more than US $ 1,000 million – following closing a round for US$ 235 million, and this year the good streak seemed to continue. Last February they closed a joint venture -alliance- with the multinational Kraft Heiz Company to “reinvent food production”, and announced expansion to Europe.
Today, the startup is in another scenario. The world economic context and the war in Ukraine took its toll on the creator of Not Mayo and Not Meat, to the point that it has just laid off 32 workers from its global workforce, which is equivalent to almost 6% of the total of its workers and is making a series of changes and postponing plans.
From NotCo they confirmed the dismissals to DF and stated in writing that “startups are facing an extremely complex macroeconomic scenario with few certainties and a lot of uncertainty ahead. As part of this system, at NotCo we are no strangers to inflation, exchange rates, record rates set by central banks, scarcity of raw materials, fears of the venture capital market, the growing complexities of the supply chain, among others”. The foodtech also added that faced with this scenario, “we have decided to put a stop and make a series of changes to the company’s focus, to the short and long term plans. Unfortunately, one of those decisions was the departure of 32 people globally, equivalent to less than 6% of the company.
Today the Chilean unicorn, in addition to having a local presence, is in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Canada. And although he had indicated intentions to enter markets in Europe and Asia, last Friday, in a webinar organized by Pulse, Muchnick stated that “there will be no geographical expansion at the moment.”
the other unicorn
NotCo’s layoffs aren’t the only ones. Last August, Betterfly, the other Chilean unicorn, laid off 42 workers, of whom 30 were from its operation in Brazil and 12 from Chile, from areas such as marketing, sales and support. Disassociations that they attributed to a restructuring of various areas that “have no relation to the business,” DF Mas reported on that occasion.
