Pepper, a technology platform for independent food distributors based in New York, has purchased Alima, a Y Combinator-backed startup that developed ordering and procurement software for small food distributors in Latin America. The acquisition, announced Tuesday without financial terms, brings Alima’s cofounders into Pepper’s leadership and bolsters its AI-driven product content and data infrastructure efforts in an industry still relying heavily on phone calls, faxes, and personal relationships.
Jorge Vizcayno, Alima’s CEO, will direct Pepper’s product content platform and data infrastructure, employing AI for extensive product catalogue management. Blanca Espinosa, Alima’s CMO and cofounder, will lead customer implementation, applying AI to streamline the onboarding process, historically a challenging aspect of selling software to food distributors.
**Two companies, one thesis**
The acquisition is modest individually but significant in its indication of where food distribution software is headed. Both Pepper and Alima operate on the premise that independent food distributors, who make up over two-thirds of North America’s food distribution and manage $1.4 trillion in annual sales, are significantly underserved by technology.
Founded in 2021, Alima addressed this gap from the Latin American perspective, where over 85% of B2B food suppliers and distributors lack digital sales capabilities, per company estimates. Alima developed an ordering platform for small and mid-sized distributors, initially focusing on fresh produce procurement in Mexico. The company was part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 batch and secured $1.5 million in seed funding from Soma Capital, YC, The Dorm Room Fund, and angel investors.
Meanwhile, Pepper has evolved into a broader platform offering ordering, sales and marketing, accounts receivable, and embedded payments for US-based food distributors. The company has raised $99 million across three rounds, most recently a $50 million Series C in February led by Lead Edge Capital, with support from ICONIQ, Index Ventures, Greylock, Harmony Partners, and Interplay. It now serves over 500 distributors with approximately $30 billion in annual gross merchandise volume.
**The AI angle**
The deal’s strategic logic focuses on product content—extensive, fragmented catalogs managed by food distributors across thousands of SKUs from hundreds of suppliers. Product data in food distribution is notoriously inconsistent: item descriptions vary among suppliers, packaging formats differ by region, and pricing frequently changes. Pepper has been developing AI systems to match and enhance this data automatically, and Vizcayno’s expertise in creating similar infrastructure for Latin American distributors makes the acquisition a talent and technology move as much as a market expansion one.
Espinosa’s role is equally significant. Customer implementation—the process of migrating a distributor to a new technology platform—is where many vertical SaaS companies lose deals. Distributors often have limited technical staff, legacy systems resistant to integration, and operations that cannot afford downtime during a transition. Pepper is betting that AI-enhanced onboarding can shorten what’s traditionally been a months-long process, and Espinosa’s background in customer acquisition at Alima positions her to lead this initiative.
This is Pepper’s second acquisition in seven months. In August 2025, it acquired Kimelo, a distribution toolset with a restaurant supply ordering app. The pace suggests Pepper is consolidating a fragmented market of small vertical tools into a single platform, a common approach in other industries but still early in food distribution.
**A $1.4 trillion market, still on paper**
The broader context shows that food distribution technology is still in its infancy, despite its vast market potential. Independent distributors are the food supply chain’s foundation, linking farms and manufacturers to the restaurants, grocery stores, and institutions that feed people. Yet technology adoption in this industry lags behind comparable sectors like logistics, retail, and financial services.
Pepper’s investors, including Index Ventures and Greylock, indicate substantial venture capital in the space. The $50 million Series C in February valued the company at an undisclosed amount but positioned it as a category leader in a market where no dominant platform has emerged. The Alima acquisition adds Latin American domain expertise and a bilingual founding team to a company likely needing to expand beyond the US to justify its funding trajectory.
For Alima’s founders, the perspective is pragmatic. Vizcayno described the acquisition as the most honest continuation of Alima’s journey. Whether this honesty reflects strategic alignment or the practical realization that a $1.5 million seed-stage startup in a challenging Latin American market found a faster path to impact within a better-funded platform is, essentially, two sides of the same coin.