US-based Eat Just Inc., an alternative protein startup, has recently raised US$170 million funding for Good Meat, its cell-grown meat division.
The funding represents the largest single round in history for that mode of meat production, the company said. It comes after Singapore became the first country to grant regulatory approval to Good Meat to sell cell-grown meat.
To date, Eat Just and its subsidiaries have raised US$820 million.
Eat Just will use the fund to ramp up production capacity and pursue scalability, which has long been the critical unanswered question for the sector’s long-term growth. In recent months, the company has been in hiring mode and expanding its technology and manufacturing infrastructure for distribution in Singapore and to prepare for eventual entry into the US market.
Eat Just co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick hopes to get regulatory approval for Good Meat’s main product, Good Chicken in the US market by the end of 2021. It plans to scale production with multimillion-dollar investments in US and Singapore facilities, while evaluating partnerships and acquisition opportunities within the alternative protein sector.
Tetrick said, “Eat without killing animals will replace conventional meat at some point in our lifetimes. The faster we make that happen, the healthier our planet will be.”
