With the latest round of funding, Just Egg Maker will be promoting its plan to become the egg of the world

Nearly a decade ago, Josh Tetrick was showering on the runway in his friend Jill’s studio apartment, trying out plant-based ingredients in his attempt to replace conventional eggs with a more sustainable option .

Tetrick spent his days testing ingredients using microwaveable muffin cups from Target

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, cooking one test after another and comparing the results to chicken eggs, once even filling the bathtub with his tests when the sink was full and surprising Jill when who forgot that he had left them there.

“There are a few people we wouldn’t be here today without and she ‘s definitely one of them,” Tetrick said with a laugh.

“Here” encompasses an ever-expanding expanse of the world. This month, the company that grew out of its trial sold the 100 millionth plant – based egg, announced a new round of financing, rollout in Canada and outlined plans to profit converted before the end of the year.

A group led by the Qatar Investment Authority has invested $ 200 million in Eat Just, raising the total amount the company has raised to just over $ 650 million since its inception. The new investment group also includes Vulcan Capital, which is an investment arm of the late Microsoft estate.

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co-founder Paul Allen, as well as Charlesbank Capital Partners, who along with QIA will chair the company’s board.

Qatar question for food security

Qatar ranks high for food security, according to the World Food Security Index of the Economic Intelligence Unit, as it is a rich country where most residents have access to food and the ability to include sudden price spikes due to supply chain issues.

That said, a trade embargo imposed in 2017 ended Qatar’s border with Saudi Arabia and started the country on track to expand domestic food production. Today, the country grows about 30% of its own production, up from about 10% before the blockade, with much of that coming from climate-controlled greenhouses, Al Jazeera reported last year.

The Qatari government has also been working to increase milk and poultry production, but what can be done there is limited by the lack of large areas of land that can be converted to agricultural production.

“Like what we have seen in Singapore, there is a deeper understanding and awareness of food security and how to build a system that does not require all the land and resources for food supply,” said Tetrick.

In addition to having a more sustainable food supply, investors are also seeing the prospect of a return on their investments.

“From their perspective as investors, there is money to be made,” Tetrick said.

There are no firm plans yet to expand production to Qatar, but it is possible because the company is looking at new markets in the Middle East.

What now for just eating?

As long as the board of Eat Just grows to include two of the new investors, the agreement does not mean that the company will block any autonomy in terms of joint venture. decisions on the business model or growth strategy, Tetrick said.

“This type of company and mission requires a long-term view of where we are going,” he said. “Many urgent decisions have been made through the board, they are a good group of shareholders, including those that have come forward, but we have that independence in decision making. . ”

Eat Just has raised more than $ 650 million since its launch nearly a decade ago, and the nature of capital acquisition has changed along with the company. In the early days, without a proven result, it was difficult to convince potential investors to see the value in a market that has not yet been created.

“Launching a straight egg, we were trying to tell people who have access to billions of dollars that chicken eggs are ubiquitous and we can make an egg that comes from a plant. It is one thing to say today and quite another when not a single egg from a plant has been sold, ”said Tetrick.

Even if investors were convinced that it was needed, they still needed to believe that there would be a market – that there would be enough buyers across the country and around the world trading the chicken eggs experienced for a plant-based alternative.

Flash forward from those early days to this month, when the company gained ever-increasing global recognition for its flagship products and recently sold the 100 millionth plant-based Just Egg. In addition to growing in North America – Just Egg products started rolling out in Canada earlier this year – the company is aiming for expansion in Asia, Europe and Europe. in the Middle East.

Another difference from those early days, with the improved product and facilities in Minnesota and Germany and one under development in Singapore, the now built capital will be used for further scaling of production and circulation.

The funding will also help the company grow its new meat-based chicken brand GOOD Meat, which ended last year as the first cultured meat to receive regulatory approval for sale to consumers in Singapore. Since then, the product will be launched on a menu there and, along with Just Egg, will be a key product that the company plans to expand into new global markets in the future.

In some ways, the launch of the culture chicken goes back to the early days of the company raising capital. Before GOOD Meat hit the market, investors were more interested in eggs based on the Eat Just plant, which had a proven track record.

These investors became more motivated “when the meat was launched and people could see that sales were actually running and there was real data on sales,” Tetrick said.

Ninety percent of U.S. restaurant operators surveyed said they would be willing to find cultured meat, and 72% of U.S. consumers indicated that they were willing to try it, according to surveys conducted for the company, data that is going well for the day when GOOD Meat wins U.S. regulatory approval.

Still, Just Egg is the product that will bring profit to the company, he said, and it is also the vehicle that has steered Eat Direct across the learning curve that started back on that sofa and continues today as the company continues to perfect and scale its technology and formulas and take lessons from the interactions with regulators around the world.

By the end of the year, Eat Just expects to hit another important milestone – profit.

The company has been kept private since its inception and Tetrick does not see a build with a bigger player in the future, but an IPO is the most likely route when the company turns a profit, he said.

Tetrick feels even more confident when he talks about another aspect of the company’s future.

“Ultimately it’s the eggs that people grow up eating, and we’ll make sure you don’t have to kill an animal to eat meat.”