Eat Just Inc., a San Francisco-based maker of plant-based egg products, raised $170 million in new funding to help expand its cell-based meat subsidiary, Bloomberg reports.
Funds raised will be used to increase Good Meat’s production capacity and accelerate research for cultivating meat from cells harvested from animals, the article said.
The company currently sells its plant-based egg products in U.S. supermarkets. Eat Just also raised $200 million in a funding round in March.
In March, the company was valued at more than $1 billion, Bloomberg reports, and that amount has remained unchanged with the new funding, the company said.
In 2020, Eat Just became the first company to sell cultivated meat to the public when it started offering cell-grown chicken in a restaurant in Singapore. Bloomberg reports another Singapore restaurant will soon join it. The company has also started selling through Foodpanda, a food and grocery delivery platform in Asia.
Although the company plans to produce in the “thousands of pounds range” this year, the article said that’s short of what’s needed.
Cultivated meat companies must get approval from both the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before they can offer their products to the public. Companies are currently awaiting guidance on labeling standards, which would be an important step toward retail sales, Bloomberg reports.
Once Just Eat receives approval, the company said it will be ready to launch in the U.S. shortly thereafter. The company is producing cultivated chicken and beef in northern California and is in conversation with vendors and retailers about initiating sales. Upside Foods, formerly known as Memphis Meats, made a similar announcement last week, the article said.
The environmental impact of cultivated meat is unknown at this time, the article said. Expectations are that it will have a higher environmental impact than chicken, pork and plant-based alternatives.
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