Argentine foodtech Frizata tells what it will do with US$4.7 million raised in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Frizata’s co-founders, José Robledo, 50, and Adolfo Rouillon, 49, tell the story of the startup founded in 2018 in the DNVB (digital native vertical brands) model which, in short, means a total verticalization ranging from food processing to its delivery at the consumer’s home.

“We have come to rethink the way food is produced and distributed, in an industry that has seen no innovation for the past 50 years,” Rouillon says. “The production and marketing chain has remained the same for decades: long, slow and obsolete.”

Orders placed in Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Rosario, for pizzas, empanadas, potato-based products, vegetables, fruits, processed beef, pork, poultry, vegan and plant-based – packaged and frozen – reach the consumer’s home within hours. Or they can be picked up at retail outlets.

The menu attracts 50,000 consumers, almost all of them e-commerce users. Last year, the partners posted US$10 million in revenue.

Now, they intend to bring to Brazil delivery with no intermediary between the manufacturer and the consumer in a technological model that inspired Rouillon and Robledo’s partnership while still at Austral University, in Rosario, a main agribusiness hub and home to the country’s largest technological center, the PTR (Rosario Technological Center), focused on biotechnology, software and telecommunications research and development.

The friends studied business sciences, a course they completed in 1996, the year in which they created Amtec.net with two other classmates, an eBuilder that became a leader in Latin America, specializing in e-commerce solutions for large companies.

Amtec was backed by Hicks Muse, a US venture capital fund, and grew to 300 professionals with operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. In 2001, the company was bought by Neoris, the technological arm of Mexican Cemex, the third largest cement producer in the world.

The two friends remained in the organization in managerial positions until 2006, when they left for a new project. The following year CDS (Congelados del Sur) was born, in what would be the inception of Frizata. A traditional distribution channel, the brand survived four years. Linked to technologies and digital transformation, the partners resumed the path by creating “Food Design Manufacturing,” a B2B model in which they supplied frozen foods to large food companies and supermarket chains in Latin America. It was another eight years in this journey.

Since everything in Rouillon and Robledo’s lives revolves around Rosario, their hometown, it was no accident that Frizata was born there, including the agro-industry with the capacity to process 6,000 tons of food. Current production stands at 4,000 tons, but with a few improvements to existing facilities this volume could be doubled.

With a park this size, they needed acceleration and the partners were given a helping hand by fate. The brand, which began to gain muscle in 2019, did not take long to see its potential customers at home because of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Argentines found a new category and realized that they can find variety, healthy products and good prices,” Robledo says.

“With Frizata’s business model potential, and during the first 7 months of restrictions, we multiplied sales by 15 times. In May 2020, in full pandemic, we exceeded 800 daily orders. We are now reaching over 200,000 purchase orders per year.” The operation started with 25 products on the menu and grew to 45 in 2020; it has more than 70 today.

From the total of industrialized products, the partners bet on the growth of plant-based and vegetarian lines, although animal protein products are dominant on their menu. Not by chance, their path is flexitarianism, i.e., a flexible vegetarian who occasionally includes a meat product on their menu.

“For the first time in 60 years, since the green revolution that gave life to industrial agriculture, we are starting to transition to a technological revolution in the food industry, which is finding new ways to meet the growing global demand for animal protein in a more sustainable way,” Rouillon says.

Of the total products on the menu, 40 do not contain animal protein in the recipe. The partners are eyeing a global market estimated by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) at around US$23 billion by 2023 for meat substitutes, which in Brazil generated R$418.7 million last year and is projected to reach R$666.5 million by 2025.

In addition to Argentina, Frizata is now in Chile. Its landing in Brazil is part of the foodtech’s global expansion. In September, the partners should open operations in the United States, with a subsidiary in San Francisco.

To sustain growth, plans include the construction of a second agro-industry. The location is still to be selected, which may be in Brazil or in the USA. In attracting new consumers, the partner’s focus is on cities with over 1 million inhabitants.

“We aim to take the brand to over 200 metropolises in the world,” Rouillon says. “Within the next five years we will be in 60 of those 200 cities, including some such as Singapore – the entry platform to Southeast Asia – London, Mexico and Madrid,” Robledo says. Ten metropolises are already on the radar for the next two years.

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