EAT JUST

Josh Tetrick quit his job at a law firm in Africa and became obsessed with a question: why do we need billions of chickens to make an egg? In 2011, he and Josh Balk (an animal welfare advocate) founded Hampton Creek (later Eat Just) to find plants that could replicate egg proteins.

After screening thousands of plants, they found that mung bean protein could mimic eggs. JUST Egg launched in 2018 and quickly became the top-selling plant-based egg in the US.

The bigger bet: GOOD Meat — actual chicken grown from cells without slaughtering animals.

Plant-based and cell-cultivated food company. Two product lines: JUST Egg (plant-based eggs made from mung beans) and GOOD Meat (lab-grown chicken cultivated from animal cells).

Revenue comes from retail sales (JUST Egg sold at Walmart, Whole Foods, Costco), food service, and licensing. The bet: replace animal agriculture with cell-cultivated meat and plant-based proteins that taste identical.

JUST Egg (plant-based liquid egg made from mung beans), JUST Egg Folded (frozen plant-based egg patties), and GOOD Meat (cell-cultivated chicken — real chicken grown from cells, no animal slaughter). JUST Egg is available at 30,000+ retail locations.

GOOD Meat has served thousands of meals in Singapore and received USDA approval for US sales.

Regulatory approvals and partnerships. GOOD Meat has been approved in Singapore and received USDA approval for US sales in 2023.

The strategy: get regulatory approvals first, then partner with food service companies and restaurants to introduce cell-cultivated meat at premium prices. Gradually scale production and reduce costs until lab-grown chicken reaches price parity with conventional chicken.

JUST Egg continues to grow in retail, providing revenue while the cell-meat business scales.

Science is slow and expensive. Cell-cultivated meat (GOOD Meat) requires massive bioreactors, regulatory approval in each country, and costs that are still far above conventional chicken.

Singapore approved GOOD Meat for sale in 2020 — the first regulatory approval for cell-cultivated meat anywhere — but scaling to price parity with regular chicken remains years away. The company has also faced corporate governance concerns: a Department of Justice investigation into misrepresenting product samples (dismissed) and high executive turnover.

Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, SoftBank, Qatar Investment Authority, and Charlesbank Capital Partners have backed Eat Just.