Artificial intelligence has become a fundamental pillar of the food industry these days. This new technology has a purpose throughout the entire agri-food chain, innovating, streamlining, and improving processes within the sector allowing it to offer a better service, quality, and product to consumers.
We had the opportunity to interview Nil Salomó Bellavista, CEO and Co-Founder of Proppos, an artificial intelligence company specializing in food recognition, which together with its partners, offers first-class A.I. payment solutions to the Food and Retail industries. Proppos’ mission is to transform the payment experience through an accurate, autonomous, and accessible computer vision solution.
Read on to learn firsthand how the idea for the company came about, future goals, his views on how artificial intelligence will change the world, and more.
How did the idea of starting Proppos come up?
While working in the food sector, specifically in a catering company within the IT team, we observed the need to speed up the queues in the food service business, yet without increasing costs. The most feasible and optimal solution was to automate the payment system using artificial intelligence and computer vision technology. The products we were selling consisted of natural products, with no barcode, making AI the technology of choice for this project. From this idea, we started to conceptualize the Proppos concept in 2019.
What stage of the project were you in when you entered the Eatable Adventures Accelerator Program and how do you consider you have come out?
We entered the Eatable Adventures Accelerator Program in the very early stages of the project, but already had a validated MVP and some market traction.
Throughout the program, our ideas were maturing and becoming more formalized. Our project was much clearer at the end of the program, both in terms of funding, processes, and relationships with companies.
Do you have new innovations in mind for Proppos?
Absolutely! Our goal is to diversify our customers as much as possible within the food service sector.
At the very beginning of our project, we were faced with the challenges of the global pandemic, in which the whole catering sector was forced to close to the public. Having a new and innovative project focused on the food service sector slowed down the integration process as we had to explain and show our customers what Proppos was all about. Like everything else, the sector had to innovate, and with this new opportunities appeared for us for implementing our technology in the food sector, from order tracking in the fast-food sector, to monitoring food safety in clinics and hospitals.
In what ways do you think artificial intelligence is going to reshape the world?
It certainly has already been doing so. Gradually, before we know it, we will be involving artificial intelligence in our day-to-day lives. The first step will be to use tools like ours to automate monotonous and simple task processes, streamlining human daily life, saving time, and allowing workers to focus on more value-added reasoning tasks.
What has been the best advice Jose Luis has given you?
He has helped and advised us in many different areas, but especially in terms of investment and how to focus when it comes to seeking investment rounds. Thanks to him we understood the importance of expanding and searching for investment at an international level to be able to scale the company and generate money in a sustainable way.
Learn more about Eatable Adventures’ alumni by visiting more interviews in our blog.