Priyanka Srinivas: Going Green
Chile, the longest and narrowest country in the world, lies stretched between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Its customs are as diverse as its landscapes, ranging from the world's driest desert to magnificent glaciers. The cultural and climatic contrasts have also marked the identity of the country and its people. Chileans share a love for their land and a heart to build bonds beyond distances.
Despite being located in a secluded corner of South America, far from Silicon Valley and other global markets, Chile's startup revolution has been drawing entrepreneurs and businessmen from far afield as India. Many Indian entrepreneurs arrive on the Chilean shore, attracted by its favourable business environment, technological expertise and government support.
Chile offers entrepreneurs and businessmen a stable and smaller market to start a pilot project, test the waters, and grow new products and services. Thanks to Chile's business-friendly environment and competitive consumers, Indian startups from IT to manufacturing industries have been established in recent years. Moreover, Chile is an ideal model market to test products and services and thereafter to expand the business to more lucrative US or other Latin American markets.
Among several Indian-origin entrepreneurs who sought their fortune in Chile include Priyanka Srinivas and Sasikanth Chemalamudi, who together founded in 2018 The Live Green Company (LGC), a foodtech startup with an aim to create healthy, plant-based foods using artificial intelligence, biotechnology and machine learning.
The duo found a number of favourable factors in Chile to start the company. Priyanka Srinivas put succinctly the reason for her decision to set up shop in Chile as the country’s many free trade agreements and the retail market that behaves similarly to the US.
The Live Green Company
Priyanka Srinivas and Sasikanth Chemalamudi together set up The Live Green Company, a firm that uses artificial intelligence to make healthy, 100% plant-based and environment-friendly food. They arrived in Chile in 2018 to start their business venture considering that the country enjoys stable political and economic conditions, and has free trade agreements with over 60 countries. Also, Chile offers significant support for foreign entrepreneurs through the "Start Up Chile" program. InvestChile, which facilitates the work of investors, and ProChile, which helps to introduce products outside Chile. According to Priyanka Srinivas, Chile serves as a platform for expanding her company to other countries in the region.
Priyanka and Sasikanth, along with a team of engineers and biotechnologists, created a software program called Charaka. It has a database of about 1000 plants and their properties, which provides recommendations for replacing preservatives and chemical additives with 100% plant-based ingredients. Currently, the company is developing products, such as hamburgers, pancake mix and ice-cream, in its factory located in Chile’s O’Higgins Region.
The Live Green Company has also begun marketing its products in other Latin American countries. As per Priyanka Srinivas, it is easy for a company to expand its business after starting in Chile. The company has expanded its footprint to Peru and the US. Also, it has begun operations in Mexico, selling its products in the country's markets. Since inception the company has been focused on using the latest technologies. Its primary objective is to make food more sustainable, healthier and tastier, and also to replace commonly consumed food products with plant-based alternatives. It offers vegan and gluten-free products that have minimally processed ingredients.
The Live Green Company uses its Artificial Intelligence-Machine Learning platform, Charaka, to identify plant components with specific properties. Thereafter, it propagates these properties in engineered microbes for consumer packed goods units to produce plant-only products.
Priyanka Srinivas' Sustainable Practices
Priyanka Srinivas has been in touch with sustainable practices from her childhood days. She observed in her young days how her parents were reusing utensils and carry-bags days on end at home until they wore out, carrying home-cooked meals while traveling, or stitching pillow-covers and doormats out of old clothes. After working for over 12 years in retail outlets, such as Calvin Klein and Target Corporation, she hit upon the idea of a startup, Live Green, to channel her lifelong passion for sustainability. Along with Sasikanth, she bootstrapped the company through savings, grants from accelerators, and Demo Days (events where startup founders present their business ideas, products, etc.), she successfully built a solution to usher in the paradigm shift from 'plant-made' to 'plant only'.
Clear Vision And Pupose
Priyanka Srinivas set out with a clear vision and purpose, which helped her find all the support she required in terms of talent, clients and investors. According to her, you have to ensure that your skills are aligned with what you wish to do and take the leap of faith. The most difficult decision she had to make with regard to the business was starting out with her husband. She was not sure how it would work out between them. Hence, they decided to put the equation to a little test by investing in a dark kitchen, wherein they set up a food delivery or takeout unit, though it was not open to the public. They worked together on the dark kitchen while working part-time on a couple of projects for a short period. It turned out to be the best decision she made, because together they could bring unique and different skill sets and a lot of synergies to the table, building a great team in a startup.
The Live Green Company has used Chile as a platform for developing its products and exporting them to the rest of the region. In recent years, it has witnessed exponential growth. In January 2022, the start-up secured a Pre-Series A financing round, in which it raised $7 million, led by investment funds from the US, Canada, Mexico and Argentina. Shortly thereafter, the company announced the acquisition of five other Chilean start-ups in the farming, food and manufacturing industries: Terrium, Aztlan DulcerÃa, Gibit, Regional Food and EcoKetrawe. It had several rounds of fund-raising for further development of the business over the years.
In 2024, The Live Green Company unveiled two active functional ingredients developed with precision fermentation: GreenTAGs, an analogue of human breast milk fat known as OPO, and GutRevyv, a post-biotic for gut health.
The Live Green Company has operations and offices across Chile, Singapore, the US and India. It is committed to improve food and price security, consumer health, and pursue the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It's at the forefront of replacing not only animal ingredients but also additives, including gums and fillers.
(Photo: Courtesy Company Site)
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