NotCo sells Brazil business to Ferrara as Latin America restructuring continues

NotCo has sold its Brazilian operation to investment group Ferrara, marking another change to the Chilean foodtech’s consumer business in Latin America as it puts greater emphasis on its artificial intelligence platform and partnerships with major food companies.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

NotCo described Ferrara as a Brazilian investment group with operations and experience in the food industry and a portfolio of natural brands in Brazil and the United States. The company said the new ownership would support further expansion of the NotCo brand through greater distribution capacity, local market knowledge and synergies with Ferrara’s existing businesses.

• NotCo has sold its Brazilian operation to investment group Ferrara for an undisclosed sum.
• The deal follows the sale of its Argentina and Uruguay businesses to Molinos Río de la Plata.
• NotCo is increasingly building its business around its Giuseppe AI platform and partnerships with major food manufacturers.

The transaction follows six years of building the business in Brazil, according to NotCo, which said its products had reached millions of consumers in the country.

Co-founder and CEO Matias Muchnick described a seven-year journey from an early meeting in São Paulo with the CEO of retailer Grupo Pão de Açúcar to establishing the brand across Brazil.

Muchnick said NotCo had managed to “position itself for example as the SECOND national player of vegetable drinks as we did with NotMilk.”

“And that must continue,” he added.

Reflecting on the transaction, Muchnick said, “It is today, that I am very calm and happy with this news that is the result of garotos and garotinhas with a brute and brutal passion for greatness. Thank you guys for yet another chapter of joy in NotCo's history.”

The Brazil deal follows closely behind NotCo’s exit from direct ownership of its consumer operations in Argentina and Uruguay.

In June, Molinos Río de la Plata agreed to acquire 100% of The Not Company S.A.S., which operated NotCo’s business in Argentina and Uruguay. Uruguay’s competition authority subsequently confirmed that the transaction was completed on July 31.

That transaction also transferred NotCo’s brands in the two markets to Molinos, one of Argentina’s largest food companies.

Neither that deal nor the Brazilian transaction had a disclosed purchase price.

The divestments come as NotCo increasingly develops the technology side of the company alongside its consumer products.

NotCo formally split its activities into two divisions around two years ago, according to Forbes: an enterprise AI software business and its consumer food business.

Forbes reported in March that NotCo’s AI-based business had grown 300% during the previous year and estimated its annual revenue at US$75 million. The publication also reported that the enterprise software operation was profitable, while the consumer food division was approaching profitability.

At the center of the technology business is Giuseppe, NotCo’s AI platform for food formulation and product development. The technology was originally developed to create the company’s own plant-based products but has increasingly been applied to projects with other food manufacturers.

A significant part of that shift has been NotCo’s relationship with Kraft Heinz.

The two companies established The Kraft Heinz Not Company joint venture in 2022, combining NotCo’s AI technology with Kraft Heinz’s brands, manufacturing capabilities and commercial scale. Products developed through the partnership have included plant-based Kraft Mac & Cheese, Kraft NotCheese slices and Oscar Mayer NotHotDogs and NotSausages.

Forbes reported that NotCo had developed 30 products for Kraft Heinz through the joint venture over four years and that NotCo was working with seven of the world’s 20 largest food conglomerates.

The Brazil transaction does not signal the disappearance of NotCo from the country. Instead, ownership and operation of the local business will pass to Ferrara, with NotCo saying the new structure is intended to expand the brand and its innovation across the Brazilian market.

The arrangement therefore follows a similar pattern to the Argentina and Uruguay deal: transferring direct control of established consumer operations while keeping the NotCo brand active under new ownership.

“Thank you to the team that made it possible. To those who were part of this story, to those who write it today, and to those who will continue to tell it tomorrow,” NotCo said. “A new chapter is opened, with more scope and more impact.”

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