Eat Just raises $200m from Qatar sovereign wealth fund, Microsoft co-founder

Eat Just, the plant-based and cultivated meat company and pioneer in the alternative protein space, has raised $200 million in growth-stage funding, taking its total raised since founding in 2011 to over $650 million.

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, led the round joined by private equity firm Charlesbank Capital Partners and Vulcan Capital – the investment arm of the estate of Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen.

The funding will be used to build capacity for Eat Just’s various products; accelerate research and development programs and build its brands internationally.

San Francisco-based Eat Just made history when it became the first company in the world to get regulatory approval to serve a cell-cultured meat product last November, in Singapore. It went on to become the first-ever to offer a cultivated meat product in a restaurant, serving chicken nuggets under its GOOD Meat brand in the Southeast Asian city-state.

Cultured meat could become a $13 billion market by 2030 and, according to a press release announcing the funding, Eat Just plans to “dramatically” reduce cultured meat production costs, scale its commercial manufacturing operations and advance its work on other types of meat.

The company — formerly known as Hampton Creek — is also leading the way when it comes to alternative egg products with its JUST Egg product now sold in more than 20,000 retail points and 1,000 foodservice locations. It has served the plant-based equivalent of 100 million eggs and will be aggressively expanding its global footprint for its frozen and refrigerated product.

In an interview on the Future Food podcast, founder and CEO Josh Tetrick said about GOOD Meat:

“We want to run as fast as we can and this will begin in Singapore where we’re scaling up from the restaurant we’re at today to five, to 10, to 1,000, then move to the US, China, other countries that eventually will clear this from a regulatory perspective. We want to scale up from 1,000 liters to 100,000 plus liters. We want to launch chicken breast, and then beef, and then pork, and then seafood. We are very much all in. It’s going to be very capital intensive. It’s going to be very hard and it’s also going to be very worth it.”

And about JUST Egg, he added: “The goal is to eventually be the number one egg brand globally, not just plant-based egg brand, but egg brand full stop. We’re approaching about 100 million plant-based eggs sold in some top three to five retailers. We’re selling more than 95% of all the eggs that they sell. The vast majority of people who buy JUST Egg are not vegan or vegetarian, they’re just trying to eat a little bit better. And eventually, with JUST Egg, we want to get to the point where we’re significantly below the cost of a conventional line.”

Listen to the full interview with Tetrick to hear more about the company and what he thinks sets it apart from the competition.