Eat Just, a vegan food start-up from San Francisco making plant-based alternative products, including plant-based eggs (I’ll explain more shortly) has secured major funding lead by the State of Qatar — a deal that’s receiving international recognition and making headlines globally, given its scale.
For those that haven’t yet heard of ‘Eat Just’ — it’s a vegan start-up with a unique speciality: vegan eggs. As the egg is the world’s most eaten animal protein, Eat Just said their goal was clear, to ‘reimagine it’
Their vegan egg starts with a small bean and some healthy soil. Then, the bean becomes an egg that scrambles in a pan or folds into an omelette. It leaves wild spaces wild, reduces air and ocean pollution, and builds muscle in our bodies without a milligram of cholesterol.
It took the company five years to find it, but they discovered a plant that magically scrambles like an egg. It’s a protein-rich legume called the mung bean. Mung beans have been in the global food system for thousands of years, but they’ve never been used quite like this.
In a huge Doha-led deal, Eat Just Inc revealed it has raised an astounding $200 million in funding led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the country’s sovereign wealth fund. Qatar’s investment into the company that has created America’s fastest-growing egg brand, which is made entirely of plants, is one of the most significant accelerations of the plant-based market to date.
It’s obvious to me why Qatar would want to be involved with the vegan brand – our sector is the fastest growing, healthiest, most sustainable area of the food world. Eat Just has already sold the plant-based equivalent of 100 million eggs and one million US households have made JUST Egg #1 in loyalty within branded eggs. The company is leading the way when it comes to alternative egg products, and it’s selling at more than 20,000 retail points and 1,000 foodservice locations.
Representatives from Qatar Investment Authority will also join Eat Just’s board, the company confirmed.
I’ve written extensively about how veganism is the future – and the daily developments of the vegan world continue to confirm this. Plant-based meat, egg, and dairy companies pulled in $2.1bn in investments in 2020, more than triple the amount raised in 2019, according to a report from the Good Food Institute.
In South America, 90% of those surveyed on the continent said would be interested in consuming plant-based foods, driven by the desire to eat healthier and take care of their health. Iceland topped the worldwide rankings for the popularity of veganism between June 2018 and June 2019. Australia’s packaged vegan food market was worth almost $200 million in 2019 and has now reached beyond the $215 million mark. In Asia, 13% of consumers across the region stated that they were vegan. Italy said the sales volume of plant-based food was estimated to be €425 million over the last year, and neighbouring Germany saw 50,000 people in Germany sign up to Veganuary 2021.
* The author is an expert in vegan wellbeing and health. Instagram handle: @Ghanim92
Ghanim al-Sulaiti
