Food tech company Eat Just announced today it has closed a $200 million funding round led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which is the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar. Charlesbank Capital Partners and Vulcan Capital also participated in the round, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. Eat Just’s total funding to date now exceeds $650 million.
San Francisco-based Eat Just said it will use the new funds to “build capacity for Eat Just’s pioneering products,” which presumably means the company’s cultured protein business GOOD Meat. Funds will also go towards accelerating research and development programs and continuing to expand internationally.
Speaking of that international expansion, the funding news comes on the heels of Eat Just expanding distribution of its plant-based egg products north of the border, into Canadian retail and foodservice outlets. The company said in today’s press release it will bring its egg product to “millions more” retail and foodservice locations in 2021.
Stateside, Eat Just officially debuted its JUST folded egg product in breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks and Peet’s this year.
Most worth watching is the company’s continued development of its cultured meat business Good Meat. Eat Just won the world’s first regulatory approval to sell cultured meat at the end of 2020, and followed that milestone up by actually selling its cultured chicken product at a restaurant in Singapore.
The company said today that it will “dramatically” lower production costs for its cultured meat, which is a goal for many these days. The company says cultured meat could become a $13 billion market by 2030 and that GOOD Meat’s chicken is on a path to price competitiveness with conventional chicken by that time.
The new funding will also be used to scale Eat Just’s commercial manufacturing operations, and further develop other types of meat in addition to its existing chicken product.
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