Food tech company NotCo is democratizing access to its AI-based technology Guiseppe through licensing and product development partnerships after proving the platform’s power to create plant-based versions of everyday products without compromise, such as when it teamed with Kraft Heinz to launch a plant-based version of its beloved mac & cheese or Shake Shack to create an eggless custard in record time.
The move repositions the company squarely as a B2B player with an end-to-end turnkey solution, dubbed Concept Quant, that can help brands develop and test products more efficiently to capitalize on cultural trends including health, sustainability and more, CEO Matias Muchnick explained at Future Food-Tech in San Francisco.
He argues CPG companies are “missing a lot of opportunities” by following the old innovation playbook of “manufacture at scale, build a strong brand, flood the shelves and drive sales with marketing muscle.”
He explained that while this approach worked “in a world where you had less alternatives to choose from,” modern shoppers have exponentially more choices in part because many startups have adopted a strategy of quickly launching a concept direct-to-consumer with the intention of leveraging feedback to quickly reformulate and launch additional SKUs.
“This is a new age for big FMCGs,” and NotCo’s technology can help them transform their innovation strategy while also cutting costs, Muchnick said.
The power and potential of Guiseppe
When NotCo’s AI technology Guiseppe initially launched 10 years ago, it offered a way to innovate faster, better, more accurately and less costly than other approaches, but because the concept of AI was still so new and so much of the packaged food and beverage industry conducted business disconnected from the digital world, many stakeholders did not know what to make of NotCo’s proposition.
“In 2025, no one knew what AI was when we were pitching, and no one really was interested in what we were saying because they did not understand it,” Muchnick said.
Future Food Tech Chicago explores AI applications enhancing product development
At Future Food Tech in Chicago June 2-3, industry leaders will explore how AI applications are aiding R&D in the food industry during a dyanamic panel that will explore:
- From new ingredient discovery to designing new molecules, how are AI and machine learning being implemented to accelerate research & development and product innovation?
- How is AI being leveraged to understand and predict elements such as functionality and mouthfeel of ingredients and recipes?
- With the growing focus on nutrition, how can AI provide greater insight to define the value and impact of ingredients and nutrients on health?
- As AI continues to evolve, what does the scope of future applications look like for the food sector?
To showcase Guiseppe’s power, NotCo launched a series of plant-based versions of iconic products – like mayonnaise – and teamed with high profile CPG companies, including Kraft Heinz, Shake Shack, Papa Johns, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts and more, to disrupt the food categories in which they played.
Introducing Concept Quant
Now, with a strong track record of success, NotCo is making its technology more accessible to CPG businesses with last month’s debut of Concept Quant, which it says leverages Guiseppe to create consumer digital twins that bring to life “pain points, values and insights” from real shoppers gathered through social listening. It then pairs these insights with brands’ values to create product concepts that are tailored for specific markets, consumption occasions and other key attributes.
The newly formed B2B side of NotCo’s company can help CPG companies quickly innovate and renovate products to capture white space and quickly meet emerging consumer needs.
To help CPG companies better understand the potential of Concept Quant, NotCo and the creative agency GUT simultaneously launched the B2B platform and marketing campaign NotBranded that showcase market-ready products that brands can adapt.
Among the concepts promoting in the campaign was a No Pee Lollipop, which Muchnick said is an “amazing” idea that AI was able to identify in a way that humans could not because it could quickly connect pain points and solutions.
“The No Pee Lollipop is super interesting because the insight the artificial intelligence tapped is that when we go to concerts, when we go to festivals and we are hearing our favorite artists” people do not want to stand in bathroom line, he said.
“Artificial intelligence connected dots humans cannot see, and this algorithm came up with this No Pee Lollipop that keeps you hydrated three hours without needing to go to the bathroom,” he added.
NotCo takes a backstage approach to partnerships
NotCo says it is already working with many of the largest CPG companies in the world – perhaps most visible is its joint venture with Kraft Heinz to create plant-based versions of many of the company’s iconic brands. But NotCo is equally open to partnerships where CPG companies and brands take center stage.
“We are behind the scenes of many of these projects that NotCo conceived. They are not co-branded,” he said. Rather, he said, the relationships are more akin to the “Intel Inside” campaign in which Intel offered tech companies a hidden solution that consumers do not see.
“We help create,” enhance, improve and attract more consumers, but the brands get the credit, he said.
He added Concept Quant and Giuseppe are well suited to tack some of the most significant challenges facing the food industry, including supply chain challenges and rocketing raw material costs by identifying alternatives that may be unexpected.
It also can identify consumer trends before they boom – or suss out unexpected drivers of existing trends to find additional white space or offer a company a different competitive edge. For example, in Chile, NotCo identified consumers were buying protein snack bars to limit sugar spikes – not because they wanted more protein. The insight helped a brand carve out space in a crowded category without having to compete on protein, Muchnick said.