September 21, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

GOOD Meat, a division of Eat Just, Inc., has raised an additional $97 million in new funding, bringing its $170 million round announced in May to $267 million. With this capital, GOOD Meat stated that it plans to increase capacity and accelerate its R&D supporting real meat made from animal cells.

Founded in 2011 with a mission to build a healthier, safer, and more sustainable food system, Eat Just has applied cutting-edge technology to create JUST Egg – the fastest-growing, plant-based egg brand in America, and GOOD Meat – the world’s first-to-market cellular lab-grown meat.

This work has gained Eat Just widespread recognition, named one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies”, Entrepreneur’s “100 Brilliant Companies”, CNBC’s “Disruptor 50”, and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer.

Last year the company also reached an important milestone when it secured the first regulatory approval for high-quality meat for human consumption in the world created directly from animal cells, only weeks before it made history when it served its GOOD Meat-branded cultured chicken to restaurant guests for the first time.

Cultivated meat has the potential to be a $25 billion global industry by 2030, and Eat Just sees its GOOD Meat Cultured Chicken as being at a price parity with traditional chicken by that point, according to modeling conducted in February of this year by a leading management consultant retained by Eat Just.

Rising consumer demand and a market outlook such as this continues to draw the attention of investors to GOOD Meat. Both new and previous investors in the company include UBS O’Connor, a hedge fund manager within UBS Asset Management; Graphene Ventures; K3 Ventures; Resilience Reserve – a venture capital fund founded by entrepreneur Rob Reid and TED curator Chris Anderson – businessman Fernando Chico Pardo, and others.

“The $2 trillion global market for meat and poultry is likely to experience significant change and disruption over the next 10 years as consumers increasingly recognize the environmental impact of their diet choices and search for healthier and more sustainable products like GOOD Meat to replace conventional animal proteins in their diets,” said Kevin Russell, chief investment officer, UBS O’Connor, in May of this year.

High-Profile Team Expansion

Concurrent to this funding announcement, GOOD Meat also announced the addition of two high-profile food and ag leaders to its team.

Joining the company’s advisory board is Dan Glickman, a well-known, highly respected individual in the fields of agriculture, nutrition, hunger, bipartisan politics, and public policy. A former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from March 1995 – January 2001, Glickman served for two decades in the U.S. House of Representatives, and is currently actively involved with organizations that work to fight domestic and global hunger and promote agricultural research for a safer, more sustainable food system.

“I’m delighted to join GOOD Meat’s Advisory Board,” said Glickman, “where I can assist the company in its efforts to provide protein options that can ultimately help feed a growing and hungry population worldwide, safely and sustainably.” He continued, “While I will always support family farmers’ work to feed the world in the U.S. and elsewhere, this company’s innovative technologies can augment opportunities over the longer term for consumers to expand their choices and improve their diets.”

Also joining the company’s Board of Directors is Jim Borel, former executive vice president with DuPont, who during his four-decade career led its DuPont Pioneer, Crop Protection and Nutrition & Health businesses.

“I’m proud to see our company take the next step toward building large-scale cultivated meat production,” said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just, who added, “This investment, along with the guidance of Secretary Glickman and Jim Borel, puts us in a position to execute our plans in multiple regions around the world.”

The addition of Glickman and Borel to GOOD Meat’s ranks comes on the heels of the company’s announcement at the end of August outlining its plans to build the world’s first cultivated meat facility in the MENA region through a three-way partnership with Doha Venture Capital and Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA), which together with the country’s Ministry of Public Health have indicated intentions to grant regulatory approval for GOOD Meat’s cultivated chicken. 

In August,  Lim Meng Hui, CEO of QFZA, said, “At QFZA, we help companies cut through the noise to rapidly establish and grow efficient operations, using Qatar’s unparalleled connectivity and access to expand worldwide. We’re particularly focused on companies shaping the future of their industries, and Eat Just’s team is doing just that.”

“Our free zones are characterized by innovation, technology, accelerated growth and environmental awareness, and Eat Just is a natural partner across all four of these areas. Our food, agritech and biomedical sectors continue to grow rapidly, supported by the world-leading cold chain storage capabilities of our airport and port, and we look forward to working with Eat Just as they establish and scale in the region and worldwide.”

– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.