Eat Just’s Cell-Based Protein Brand Raises $170 Million in Latest Funding Round

Eat Just recently secured a $170 million funding round to bulk up its manufacturing and propel its new Good Meat brand – a subsidiary that will develop cell-based meat products – into production. Eat Just is well known for its plant-based JUST Egg products, but the company plans to expand its range to encompass other proteins. Eat Just partnered with JW Marriott Singapore South Beach’s restaurant Madame Fan to offer an animal-free chicken dish launching on May 20th. The funding round will allow the company to scale up its new cell-based protein products, specifically its cultured chicken.

“This investment, along with the historic decision by JW Marriott Singapore South Beach, points to what’s ahead: meat without killing animals will replace conventional meat at some point in our lifetimes,” co-founder and CEO of Eat Just Josh Tetrick said. “The faster we make that happen the healthier our planet will be.”

The latest funding round comes from investors including UBS Asset Management, Graphene Ventures, K3 Ventures, UBS O’Connor, and others. The funding round will be used to accelerate Good Meat’s cultured meat research, making the cell-based products available worldwide. The company has already begun rolling out its cultured meat products, starting with its cultured chicken.

The massive investment round showcases the growing consumer trend towards animal-free products. The funding round will allow companies like Eat Just to shift the market towards more sustainable material, changing dietary structures across the globe. Last December, Eat Just started to sell its chicken bites sourced from cultured meat in Singapore, marking the first time a cultured meat product became regularly available.

“Just as fully electric cars will someday simply be referred to as ‘cars,’ cultivated meat can become the default if the industry receives adequate public and private funding to scale up,” Managing Director of Good Food Institute Mirte Gosker said. “Forward-thinking hospitality leaders like JW Marriott Singapore South Beach and restaurants like Madame Fan are providing a sneak peek of what’s possible in that safer and more sustainable future.”

The Good Food Institute released a report recently that projected that cultivated meat companies raised more than $360 million in just the last year, six times more than 2019. The continued investment shows the potential for the cell-based protein market, providing another substitute for conventional animal protein.

“Continued investment is critical to ensure that cultivated meat can meet the moment--providing a more sustainable, safe, and secure way of feeding people with far fewer greenhouse gas emissions, far less land and water required, and no contribution to antibiotic resistance and pandemic risk,” executive director of the Good Food Institute Bruce Friedrich said.

Cultivated meat is not yet available in the United States market as companies must wait for the US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to approve its safety ahead of distribution. Although there is no public timeline, Eat Just expresses optimism that its products will soon be available stateside.