One of Greater Boston's latest foodtech startups grew out of a pair of refurbished shipping containers on a farm in Chile.
Founders Priyanka Srinivas and Sasikanth Chemalamudi, who moved to South America from India in 2018, wanted to start and test The Live Green Co. with a small market. Four years and millions of dollars in funding later, they have moved the startup's headquarters to Cambridge.
Live Green was founded on the idea that removing animals from the food chain is not enough to meet the health needs of the growing population and tackle the climate change crisis that is worsened by meat consumption, Srinivas said in an interview. The startup is using its proprietary technology to replace the animal, synthetic and ultra-processed ingredients in foods. Its Charaka platform identifies plant-only alternatives to these products and quantifies the benefits of different substitutions, looking for the perfect combination.
“We marry ancestral wisdoms of plant nutrition with biotech and machine learning,” Chemalamudi said. “We call this accelerating the world’s transition toward sustainability and sustainable foods.”
Srinivas and Chemalamudi, who are married, saw a need for Live Green after adopting their niece and struggling to find healthy food options. At the time, Srinivas was a senior grocery manager at Target and Chemalamudi had experience as an engineer and entrepreneur. Between their personal experiences in the grocery store and their professional backgrounds, the couple felt they could bring something new to the foodtech market.
“That is what led to us not trying to be a product company by bringing one product solution but trying to see how we could literally disrupt the whole industry,” Srinivas said. “We knew that disruption comes with technology, and that is when we looked deeper about how technology was being used in the food industry. To our surprise we found that there was a lot of potential.”
Sign up for The Beat, BostInno’s free daily innovation newsletter from BostInno reporter Hannah Green.
The startup is entering a market that analysts expect to continue growing rapidly. The plant-based food market was valued at $29.4 billion in 2020, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. A 2021 report by the organization estimated that the market could hit $162 billion within the next decade.
The couple started Live Green in Chile to test their technology and products in a smaller market, Srinivas said. The company’s first products were burgers and ice cream.
After three years, Srinivas said Live Green’s products were sold in every supermarket chain in Chile and the company started getting attention from global news outlets. The founders agreed that moving the foodtech startup to the Boston area would give them access to the investors and talent to grow into a global company.
In October, the company relocated to the Cambridge Innovation Center. Live Green has 24 employees and is looking to hire for roles across operations, data science, food science and commercialization. Chemalamudi said they’re aiming to employ 35 team members with 10 in the U.S.
“We have already identified a couple of hires. We have already identified manufacturing partners,” Chemalamudi said. “We have already been producing small batches of our products and organizing tasting sessions for different investors and clients. So, we are as good as already here.”
Another pull to Greater Boston came from Live Green’s latest funding round. In December, the company closed an oversubscribed $7 million pre-Series A round led by Boston-based DRADS Capital.
“When I look at Sasi and Pri’s idea, and [how they’re] out there producing these clean labels and using the technology, there’s no brainer,” said A. Nagarajan Pillay, founding managing partner of DRADS Capital. “This is what I want for me as a consumer. Why not make it as a business because they have everything.”
Live Green plans to bring products into U.S. supermarkets under their own brand. But long term, Srinivas said they hope to partner with existing retailers to help them improve their private labels.
“We will be their innovation partners and bringing these innovative, plant-only, clean-label products under their label with a “Powered by Charaka” seal on the back,” Srinivas said. “That is the current work we are doing as we speak.”
