This woman entrepreneur’s startup aims to replace processed ingredients with natural ones using AI
Chile-based The Live Green Co has built an algorithm called Charaka, an AI engine that helps replace all synthetic, processed, unsustainable, and animal-based ingredients with natural ones.
Priyanka Srinivasan always worried about one thing: Food. The market offers numerous options but she felt the ones available were animal-based, synthetic, and completely processed. She always believed that nature and world around us had always the best ingredients.
“There are over 450,000 plants and over 10 million plant-based compounds that can all give the flavour and nutrition we need, but they are simply not put to use,” Priyanka says.
Wanting to do more, she opened along with Sasikanth Chemalamudic in Chile in 2018.
The startup uses only plant-based ingredients, additive replacements, and nutritional compounds to the forefront of the food system. For this, the team has built an AI-powered recommendation engine called Charaka, which helps make plant-based ice-creams.
The product
Priyanka explains the startup’s AI engine is a blend of age-old wisdom, biotech, and ML to prescribe a 100 percent natural plant alternative to different foods, starting with ice creams.
The ingredients are put in through the Charaka, which helps replace all synthetic, processed, unsustainable and animal-based ingredients with more natural ones such as bananas, flaxseed, avocado, etc.
“When we dug deeper into the segment, we realised there is a storehouse of repositories in Ayurvedic medicine, Chinese Herbology, and other eastern plants. Using our own patented R&D, we have found plants and other natural compounds that make the food tastier, healthier, and sustainable,” Priyanka says.
The Live Green Co Ice cream
The Live Green Co is in fact one of the first Latin American-based food tech startups to receive B Corporation® Certification, by B Lab, after demonstrating its ability to meet rigorous social and environmental standards.
According to the startup, being certified by B Corporation® is an indicator of a company’s integrity and commitment to sustainability and addressing global challenges, not just to turning a profit. An endorsement by the nonprofit is a badge of honor in the business world because it shows that the company is making a positive impact on people as well as on the planet.
At present, it is the only certification that evaluates a company’s entire social and environmental performance.
With this certification, The Live Green Co. joins leading organisations heavily focused on social and environmental impact, including Patagonia, Toms, Heura Foods, and Betterfly, a leading Chilean insurtech company.
The market and future
The Live Green Co sells its algorithm, the patent pending product – Charaka, to B2B players. The startup has participated in the Sigma first accelerator class and has had Sigma Alimentos, a multinational Mexican food company, acquire a minority stake.
The B2B pricing is yet to be disclosed by the company.
The startup has raised seed funding of $1 million from investors in the US, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile.
The plant-based food and meat market is believed to touch $8.3 billion by 2025, according to Markets and Markets.
While there are companies like Eat Just and NotCo and other plant-based companies that use tech to help in formulations, the Live Green Co’s Charaka is not just replacing animal ingredients, but also other ingredients and additives.
“We want to bring a focus and shift to our ancient science, and focus on a sustainable replacement to meat and synthetic produce,” Priyanka says.
The Live Green Co is currently in talks with several global organisations and is looking to expand its base.
Edited by Megha Reddy