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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

plant-based egg

Float Foods Secures $2.2M for Alternative Whole Egg Product

Singapore-based Float Foods, which produces whole plant-based eggs, announced today that it has raised $2.2 million SGD (~$1.66 million USD). This round of funding was led by both DSG Consumer Partners and Insignia Ventures, with participation from Teja Ventures Apricot Capital, Baksh Capital, Agrocorp Ventures, Water Tiger Investments, and Ebb & Flow. In addition to this recent round, Float Foods previously raised an undisclosed amount of capital through a grant from the Temasek Foundation in March of this year.

The startup’s proprietary product is called OnlyEg, which is made from a base of legumes. The alternative egg contains both a yellow yolk and the whites like a regular egg, allowing it to function much like a regular egg in various applications.

One common concern with alternative protein products is that they do not have the same nutritional value as their animal counterpart. This can sometimes be true, however, Float Foods claims that its alternative egg contains as many vitamins and minerals as a chicken egg. The company also said it is improving upon the nutritional content of its OnlyEg before it launches.

There are not many other whole plant-based eggs on the market, and Float Foods mainly faces competition from companies making alternative eggs in liquid form. However, there is a company based in Singapore called OsomeFoods that recently launched an alternative whole, hardboiled egg product made from mycoprotein. Eat Just is building a factory in Singapore to expand availability of its liquid egg product throughout Asia.

OnlyEg is not yet available on the market, and Float Foods said that the product will likely launch next year. In addition to the alternative whole egg product, the company is also developing plant-based egg patties and shreds.

Eat Just Goes Further Into Foodservice With a Major Canada Expansion

Eat Just, maker of both plant-based eggs and cultured meat, announced a major expansion today that brings its popular JUST Egg product into foodservice formats across Canada. According to a press release sent to The Spoon, that includes distribution at restaurants, hotels, universities, and government and corporate cafeterias.

Foodservice businesses in Canada can now order the JUST Egg — a frozen folded “egg” made from mung bean — through their distributors and sell the product on their menus. The move into foodservice follows Eat Just’s retail debut in Canada, which happened earlier this month. The launch also includes a partnership with Copper Branch, one of the largest plant-based restaurant chains in the world.

Today’s news is also the latest in a string of moves Eat Just has made in the last few months specifically around restaurant distribution. Since January, the San Francisco-based company launched the JUST Egg product at Peet’s and Starbucks in the U.S., and struck a deal with Discos in China to outright replace traditional egg offerings with Eat Just’s plant-based items. 

These partnerships are part of a larger trend happening in the restaurant biz right now as more brands expand the number of fully plant-based meals they offer in response to an uptick in demand from consumers. The ubiquitous breakfast sandwich — sausage, egg, and cheese — is a good example. Previously, only one component (usually the sausage) of that offering was plant-based. Now, restaurants like Starbucks and Peet’s are vegan-izing the whole sandwich, which means other QSRs and fast-casual chains will follow soon. It’s a similar pattern to the original rise of plant-based protein in QSRs that happened a couple of years ago.

However, Eat Just is also developing cultured meat products through its GOOD Meat line, and so clearly has bigger ambitions for the restaurant industry than simply selling its plant-based egg products. At the end of 2020, the company became the first in the world to be granted regulatory approval to sell cultured meat. Actual sale of GOOD chicken bites followed shortly after, at a restaurant in Singapore.

Restaurants will be a major part of cultured meat’s expansion from lab prototype to mainstream staple — a point Eat Just’s CEO Josh Tetrick confirmed to me at a talk last year. So while this rapid expansion into restaurants around the world is good for the company’s plant-based wares, it’s vital for the expansion of its GOOD line. 

That expansion won’t happen immediately, of course. Like any other company making cultured meat, Eat Just will have to gain regulatory approval for every single market it plans to enter with its GOOD products, and it is unclear how long that process will take. However, once said regulatory approval is granted, existing partnerships with major foodservice businesses could give the company a big head start when it comes to cultured meat.

Peggs, a Plant-Based Egg Made From Chickpeas, Will Soon Launch on Kickstarter

The plant-based egg space is rapidly expanding, with the category growing 228 percent in the past two years. Eat JUST is one of the biggest names in this category, but other plant-based egg companies have begun making a name for themselves. California-based Peggs is one of the more recent companies to join this space, and the company will be launching a Kickstarter campaign on January 27th for its plant-based egg.

To learn more about Pegg’s product and upcoming Kickstarter launch, I spoke with the founder of Peggs, Grace O’Brien. Peggs comes in powder form, and can be used to make classic egg dishes like a scramble or omelet, and can also be used for baking. The main ingredients in Peggs are chickpea flour, potato, and flax.

Currently, the protein content of Peggs is not on par with real eggs; each serving of Peggs’ eggs contains about 2 grams of protein while real eggs have around 6 grams. O’Brien said that the company is focused on the flavor of the product, but are also working to increase the protein content of its plant-based eggs. The company hopes to soon use chickpea protein isolate, which is higher in protein than chickpea flour, as its main ingredient.

Chickpea is a promising ingredient in the plant-based space due to its versatility, protein content, and neutral flavor, and several other companies in the plant-based space are capitalizing on these characteristics. Israel-based company InnovoPro raised $15 million in funding last year for its chickpea-based protein powder for B2B use. ChickP, also located in Israel, produces a chickpea protein isolate and chickpea starch for different food applications.

When Peggs becomes available for direct to consumers purchase in late Spring of 2021, the retail price will be around $6 per bag, which equates to about a half dozen eggs. O’Brien said the goal is to eventually lower the price so Peggs’ eggs are equal cost to organic eggs. The product will be available for pre-order when the Kickstarter launches, and a two-bag minimum purchase, for $12, is required. Products purchased through Kickstarter will ship in May 2021. The company aims to raise $37K through the campaign.

A Plant-Based Egg Round-Up

According to the Good Food Institute, the plant-based egg industry is worth $10 million. This is a small number compared to the plant-based milk industry, which is worth a whopping $2 billion; however, the plant-based egg industry has grown by an impressive 228% in the past two years. With the entire plant-based food industry estimated to reach $74.2 billion by 2027, there is plenty of room for the plant-based egg category to continue to grow.

Plant-based eggs are poised to become the next big thing in the plant-based space, and it can be hard to keep up with all of the companies involved in this industry. We’ve pulled together some of the emerging and bigger players in this space.

Eat Just
Funding: $220M
About: After hitting the milestone of selling over 50 million plant-based eggs earlier this year, it is clear that Eat Just is one of the leaders in this industry. The company makes its liquid egg and folded egg patties with mung beans as the main ingredient. Eat Just products are available in retailers and restaurants nationwide (U.S.), and the company announced in October that it is expanding its products into Asia.

Zero Egg
Funding: $8M
About: Zero Egg launched its plant-based egg powder alternative earlier this year in October on World Egg Day. The egg alternative is crafted from soy protein isolate and pea flour and comes in two different varieties: EGG Basics as a direct replacement for scrambles or omelets and BAKE Basics for specialty baking. Zero Egg’s products are available globally to foodservice operators and manufacturers in the US, Europe, and Israel.

Float Foods
Funding: Undisclosed
About: According to Green Queen, Float Foods is the first company in Asia to create a plant-based egg white and yolk. This new product is called OnlyEg, and it is set to become available commercially in 2022. This plant-based egg was developed using a mixture of undisclosed legumes. In September of this year, Float Foods also launched an incubator for plant-based food innovators.

Evo Foods
Funding: $335K
About: This is India’s first plant-based egg start-up, and it has said it will be launching a plant-based liquid egg alternative sometime this year. Evo Foods uses biotechnology to extract protein from lentils for its formula. The product will first be made available D2C on its website and restaurants in India, and the company has plans to launch in the US by April 2021.

Crack’d
Funding: Unknown
About: The company recently announced at the beginning of November that it will be launching its liquid plant-based egg in the UK market. The egg formula is comprised of pea protein, nutritional yeast, and black salt. According to Crack’d, its liquid egg can be used for both baking and creating traditional egg dishes.