RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Fintechs, for one, leveraged the limitations created by the coronavirus in terms of physical presence and positioned themselves as a financial solution for people outside the traditional system, attracting professionals who were sidelined by banks.
Cryptocurrencies also attracted millions of users worldwide, mainly in countries where local currencies are weak and constantly lose value against the dollar, such as Argentina.
But these were not the only companies to confirm the Chinese word play in which the ideogram “crisis” is accompanied by the word “opportunity.”
Startups are standing out and adding more players every day, particularly those related to the food industry, making their way through adversities and through original projects often backed by seed investments.
Argentina is known as “the breadbasket of the world” and thanks to local development it is also the cradle of the foodtech industry.
Even more so with the recent success story from the other side of the Andes: Chile’s NotCo, which creates animal food replicas using only plants and intelligence, has just become a unicorn and is now worth over US$1.5 billion.
SOLUTION TO WASTE
An Argentine startup was chosen – for its contribution to the agtech and foodtech sectors – among the 20 companies selected by Village Capital and Visa Foundation for its “the future of food” program, which targets companies to receive investment for their work in addressing the region’s most pressing challenges in the agricultural and food technology sectors.
SaveTic, a local company that allows the real-time control of stocks and expiration dates of products located at points of sale through a digital platform, is among the finalists’ projects. Co-founder Mauricio Kremer explained that the concept emerged when he realized the large amount of perishable products discarded in supermarkets.
“I come from the retail sector. Although the company where I worked was one of the main rice suppliers, I was in contact with other fresh produce companies. And that’s where I noticed the huge amount of food being dumped as if it were nothing,” Kremer recalls.
With extensive experience in trade marketing, logistics and management, Kremer adds: “A colleague and I came up with the idea and we started approaching large supermarket chains we had contacts with. We abandoned a long corporate career and since January we have been fully focused on the platform.”
Thus SaveTic was born and today it is in charge of solving a common problem for many stores: cutting losses by tracking a product when it reaches the shelf with an existing code, certified by GS1, the body that issues barcodes.
“When it reaches a branch, traceability is lost, because in a supermarket the stock per unit is known but the expiration date is not taken into account. With our software, we provide this information and alerts on which goods are about to expire so that the restocker can act,” Kremer explains.
In addition, the executive emphasizes that in Argentina losses in the perishable sector account for almost 5% of total supermarket turnover, including expired goods, breakage and theft.
SaveTic’s team is made up of 7 people and, although in this first stage it provides solutions to small stores, it has the capacity to work with large clients located anywhere in the world. In addition, it is about to open a new round of investments.
“Anyone who decides to use our software will have an implementation time of no more than 3 weeks. Results take longer to be seen because we aim for them to be reflected in two months in order to generate metrics and a history in which they can see the positive impact,” the specialist explains.
THE “TINDER” OF FLOUR
Argentina has over 100 wheat mills. Although the sector has incorporated different tools in recent years to enhance the sales process, such as electric controllers, there is still a long way to go.
This is how Matías Durante, a former commercial and sales manager in well-known companies in the industry, recognized an opportunity and began to develop Modo Agrario platform, which employs 7 people.
This startup is now online and allows producers to ask registered mills for quotations and each one to share their experience, which also turns it into a cooperative platform.
“The idea was born in the pre-pandemic when we realized the future of the flour industry, and how several processes in different areas were still done informally. We are a platform where quotes can be requested directly from mills,” the entrepreneur says.
“Our proposal is to digitalize and democratize the buying and selling process, both for large mills and bakers. Customers submit their requests for a price quote and receive a reply from the interested parties. We currently have 14 mills on our platform and we aspire to increase that number,” Durante said.
The expert points out that several companies choose to use e-mail to manage their business, but it is widely known that it can often get lost in the inbox. However, “with the process digitalized, there is a record of everything,” says Modo Agrario’s CEO. “It is transparent. Everything can be audited in the case of industries and it lowers costs by increasing supply.”
In addition, for the platform’s next stage, its developers plan to incorporate animal feed, which is a by-product of wheat milling.
A PLACE FOR THE HEALTHY
Tomorrow Food startup, dedicated to extracting plant-based proteins and processing them into various healthy solutions, announced its meatless burger. “Today the industry is focused on developing sustainable food production,” said the company’s co-founder Gonzalo Segovia, based in Pergamino, Buenos Aires.
The expert explains that this is why meat analogues are emerging, “which can be made from vegetable proteins or from cell culture in a laboratory.”
And after lengthy work, the company now has its first product for sale, its vegetable protein hamburgers, suitable for vegans, low in sodium and cholesterol-free, among their most outstanding qualities.
The startup has started contacting sellers for the presentations “Plant Based Burger” (80 or 112 grams per patty) and “Pre-Mix recipe” (to prepare them in the size and format of the user’s choice).
The company raised US$3 million in its second round to intensify and accelerate its research and development efforts, in addition to strengthening its commercial division.
THE FUTURE OF FOODTECH
The case of startup Frizata is a clear example of the sector’s potential: the Rosario-based company produces, markets and distributes frozen food from a digital platform, directly to the home.
Its model was approved by the market: it closed an investment round for US$5 million led by SP Ventures and Marcos Galperin. In addition, it expanded into Chile and plans to reach the U.S. and Asia.
“Argentina is valued as a major food producer and technology allows us to add value to the commodities we have. But not only to soybean and cereals, but to all categories,” the Endeavor network company said.
Along the same lines, Kremer highlights that there is a wide range of opportunities for the sector since “the consumer is increasingly demanding” and technology applied to food helps in different ways.
“With food traceability it is possible to know where it comes from and what we are eating. It is possible to know everything from the field to the plate. And furthermore, processes can be optimized throughout the chain,” explains the SaveTic expert.
For his part, Durante points out that the pandemic has boosted the industry and that although “there are many good ideas, a percentage will manage to establish themselves and in a second stage there will be a connection between the players.”
The fact is that Argentine foodtech companies are in a context in which they will continue to grow and transcend beyond borders provided they leverage the favorable winds. And become the “breadbasket of the world” again, but in version 4.0.