Eat Just, the US firm which makes a faux egg product from mung beans and cultivates meat in a lab, has raised US$200m in a funding round.
The San Francisco business, previously known as Hampton Creek and Just, has now been backed to the tune of $650m since it was founded in 2011.
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Its latest funding round was led by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the Middle East country’s sovereign-wealth fund, and joined by private investment firm Charlesbank Capital Partners and Vulcan Capital, the investment arm of the estate of Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen.
Representatives from QIA and Charlesbank will be added to its board of directors.
Eat Just said the investment will be used to increase capacity, build its brand in “key international markets” and drive R&D.
Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO, said: “We are very excited to work with our investors to build a healthier, safer and more sustainable food system. Their knowledge and experience partnering with companies that are transforming numerous industries were fundamental in our decision to partner with them.”
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By GlobalDataEat Just’s Just Egg product is now sold in more than 20,000 retail points of distribution and 1,000 foodservice locations in the US.
The company said it has sold the plant-based equivalent of 100 million eggs.
On the international front, Dicos, one of China’s largest fast-food chains, has recently added Just Egg to its menu and Eat Just announced a partnership to manufacture Just Egg sous vide products as part of an agreement with Cuisine Solutions, a manufacturer and distributor of sous vide foods.
In December, Singapore gave the all-clear for meat created in a laboratory by Eat Just to be sold there.
The green light from the Southeast Asian city-state’s regulator, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), is believed to be the world’s first regulatory approval for cell-based meat.
And earlier this month, Eat Just announced that more than 1,000 grocery stores in Canada would be stocking its products, which are also being made available to restaurants and other foodservice operators in the country.
