In a field in San José de los Lingues, in the San Fernando commune, lives Priyanka Srinivas, an Indian citizen but who, from Chile, is planning to build the next foodtech empire. There, from the region of Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins and without knowing how to speak Spanish, she has a kitchen-laboratory where she puts into practice the different formulations (which are researched by scientists in India) to create 100% plant-based foods.
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“Unlike other companies that replace the animal, here everything is replaced: the animal, the additives, the preservatives. They are not plant-based products. They are just plants ”, says to DF MAS Priyanka Srinivas - known as Pri-, CEO and co-founder of The Live Green Co.
So far they have three products: hamburger powder mix, ice cream varieties, and pancake mix. In addition, they have capsules to reduce stress, increase defenses and perform detox. They left in Chile -sold in different supermarket chains-, continued through Peru and now they are in the United States via Amazon.
And so far the success has been unexpected. This week her victory was confirmed in the “Female Founder Award” category of the Extreme Tech Challenge, organized by Bill Tai, one of the first investors in Zoom and Twitter. “Of the companies that he has invested, 23 have already gone public. They are regarded as the Venture Capital gold fund of Silicon Valley, ”he says.
-What does it mean that NotCo has achieved unicorn status?
-For us, NotCo is a great success story. It generated a lot of confidence in the food industry, because before them the category of milk and alternative protein was not so big. They have done a great job in promoting foodtech. But we think that in terms of consumption and differentiation, NotCo goes the other way. They propose to remove the animal from the equation, we go further, not just the animal. I spoke with Pablo Zamora. He is very scientific, he knows a lot. It was a great experience talking to him. Also, it is a trillion dollar industry, not that one company takes the entire market. It takes several companies to put sustainability at the top.
From Target to Startup Chile
At 32, Priyanka Srinivas said, “If I don't start my entrepreneurial adventure now, I'm never going to. Do it now, if it doesn't go well, you can always go back to traditional work. You will regret it if you don't. " And she did.
It was 2017, and at the time, Srinivas had a high rank at Target, America's No. 2 retailer. “I was the grocery products manager. At that time Target was making a change by reducing the space for large companies like Unilever and Nestlé to give it to healthy and sustainable products, ”she says. “But I realized that these new brands weren't 100% green. Thus was born the idea of The Live Green: to create a firm that had a 100% conscious production, packaging and product ”.
But where to start? “I knew that I wanted to start in a western country. That brought me to Chile. I heard about the Start-Up Chile and Corfo program. I realized that there were free trade agreements with more than 60 countries. I also realized that, in terms of retail, they were like the United States, very organized, ”she confesses. "So I sold everything in India and bought a ticket to Chile."
She arrived -with her husband and her partner Sasikanth Chemalamudi- at the end of 2017 for the S Factory Program of Start-Up Chile, an instance to raise women's projects. That's where the idea for The Live Green came from. With a part-time team working from London and New Delhi, they managed to develop the first products.
He found her distribution partner doing door-to-door in Vitacura. “I went with a practitioner who was Chilean. I did not speak Spanish. In a store I met a dealer. He spoke to me in English and asked me about the company. I told him about Start-Up Chile and my story. That's how I found Regional Foods, my distributor, ”she recalls. "We also work with Nutrisa, which distributes our products at Walmart, Jumbo, Unimarc and Tottus," she adds.
In the midst of a social explosion, they decided to raise capital. “There was a lot of uncertainty, but we managed to overcome it because we were growing at good numbers each month,” emphasizes Pri. They closed the round in July 2020 with $ 1 million. There, Fondo Alerce (linked to Endurance, a Chilean alternative fund manager) joined the company, plus other foreign funds: NOA Capital (Mexico) and Draco 1 Latam (Argentina).
-How important was Chile for The Live Green Co?
-The Chilean ecosystem helped us in several things. The Start-Up Chile programs made us have the investment until we were able to make an MVP (minimum viable product in Spanish) and be ready to raise capital. It is a great country to land.
-Will you stay in Chile or are you already thinking of leaving for a bigger country?
-We are a company with a global spirit. At heart, we are Chilean, because the company started here. Therefore, we have an emotional bond with the country. But the idea of having come here was to start and test. But looking to the future, Chile is key to the operation of The Live Green.
And although they started with a traditional model -generating technology, creating a product and selling it at different points of sale-, now The Live Green is ready to take the next step: sell licenses for other brands to use their technology. “Beyond Meat took 11 years and it took US $ 1.6 billion to reach revenues of US $ 400 million. We realized that it was very difficult, ”confesses Srinivas.
Therefore, they came up with the formula: continue to develop the technology, but instead of dedicating themselves to production, sell it to large companies. “As an example, if we work with Cencosud, they will have their own product line, but we will help them launch plant-based products, under our software called Charaka. By doing that, we will spend less money building the company, ”says the executive.
But it is not an idea. They have already closed an agreement with Sigma Alimentos, a Mexican giant. This will allow them to reach more than 2,000 points of sale in less than a year. "That figure can be much higher because it is a company with a presence in 18 countries." The details of the agreement are still confidential, but Pri anticipates that the product will have the Charaka seal, which is the AI software that they developed to generate the products on a 100% plant basis.
A similar business is about to close in India and China to start conquering the Asian market. "It is a very good opportunity because in that region this area is not as developed as in the United States," she says.
In addition, they are already preparing a capital increase between US $ 8 and US $ 10 million to support the growth plan, which, according to Pri, has no borders: they already see the United States and Europe as the next markets. In fact, he already has advanced conversations with the largest ingredients firm on the old continent.
And what about the next products? The founder anticipates that they are focusing on “the milk and meat segment. We are looking at alternatives to that. Is coming soon"
Desde la India, Priyanka Srinivas llegó a Chile para levantar un negocio que promete revolucionar la industria de alimentos: venderá licencias de productos 100% vegetales. Ya arribaron a México y se preparan para aterrizar en Europa y China.
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