# Karim Pichara

> Karim Pichara is the Chilean computer scientist, former astronomy researcher and co-founder and CTO of NotCo. He built the first version of Giuseppe, an AI system that began by proposing plant-based food formulations and now anchors NotCo AI's enterprise product-development platform. Based in San Francisco and still listed as an associate professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Pichara has spent a decade joining machine learning, laboratory experiments, chefs and food science.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CTO at NotCo
- **Organizations:** NotCo, NotCo AI, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Harvard Institute for Applied Computational Science
- **Nationality:** Chilean
- **Education:** Civil Industrial Engineer in Computer Science, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Master of Science in Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, PhD in Computer Science, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Postdoctoral research in machine learning for astronomy, Harvard University
- **Known for:** Built the first version of Giuseppe, the AI system at the center of NotCo's product-formulation work., Co-founded NotCo in 2015 and led its technology and intellectual-property development., Co-authored research on variable-star classification, anomalous light curves, quasar detection and machine learning under missing data.

## Career timeline

- **2010** — Began his UC Chile faculty career and completed his doctorate in computer science.
- **2011-2012** — Conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard, applying machine learning to astronomical data.
- **2015** — Co-founded NotCo with Matías Muchnick and Pablo Zamora and built the first version of Giuseppe.
- **2017** — Presented NotCo and its already-on-sale NotMayo at IndieBio's San Francisco demo day.
- **2021** — NotCo obtained a US patent covering applications of Giuseppe; Pichara publicly described licensing the technology as a future line of business.
- **2024** — Returned to UC Chile for a fireside chat on computer science, AI and the stages of building NotCo; also discussed Giuseppe experiments in fragrance.
- **2025** — NotCo created NotCo AI as a distinct enterprise-focused unit while Pichara remained co-founder and CTO.
- **2026** — NotCo AI said its enterprise platform was running live programs with 20 major consumer packaged goods companies.

## Achievements

- Built the first version of Giuseppe, the AI system at the center of NotCo's product-formulation work.
- Co-founded NotCo in 2015 and led its technology and intellectual-property development.
- Co-authored research on variable-star classification, anomalous light curves, quasar detection and machine learning under missing data.
- Received the 2016 AVONNI-Unimarc food innovation award with NotCo.
- Was recognized with Matías Muchnick as EY and El Mercurio Entrepreneur of the Year in 2021.
- Helped develop a patented approach that connects machine learning with food formulation and laboratory validation.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Recent reporting described Pichara as the technical figure behind NotCo's shift toward enterprise AI and named PepsiCo, Mondelēz and Mars among the unit's customers.
- **2026-09** — NotCo AI's company page listed Pichara as co-founder and CTO and said the platform was running live programs with 20 leading consumer packaged goods companies.
- **2025-12** — Food Science and Technology published an interview with Pichara about data-driven product development and Giuseppe AI.
- **2025-05** — Pichara co-authored new research on self-regulated convolutional neural networks for classifying variable stars.
- **2024-09** — Pichara discussed adapting Giuseppe to generate fragrance formulas from natural-language prompts.

## Links

- Website: https://www.notco.ai/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karim-pichara-89903432/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/karimpb
- GitHub: https://github.com/karimpb
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpAja5BGZbIkiq2bRfUtA8g/playlists
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karim.pichara.baksai

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/karim-pichara
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27