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Eat Just Mulls $3 Billion IPO To Eventually Make Cruelty-Free Food Mainstream

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Eat Just is targeting “at least” $3 billion in valuation for its IPO that will likely happen in Q4 2021 or early next year, according to one of the leading investors of the plant-based eggs producer, an increase from the $2 billion valuation Bloomberg reported last October.

Cofounder and CEO Josh Tetrick recently noted how Eat Just is on track to achieve several key milestones in terms of operating profitability and scale, and confirmed a public listing is “definitely getting closer.”

The California-headquartered company has raised a total of $440 million to-date, according to Crunchbase, including a recently closed $200 million led by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), joining other investors, including Charlesbank Capital Partners and Vulcan Capital.

Eat Just’s cultured meat division GOOD Meat has also secured $170 million in a financing round in May after becoming the world’s first company to sell meat made from animal cells instead of slaughtered livestocks in Singapore.

The company overall is currently valued “north of $1 billion,” Tetrick said, adding Eat Just is also building a large-scale manufacturing facility in Singapore, where the local consumer's positive feedback on cultured meat serves as a validator for its U.S. expansion in the future.

Tetrick anticipates the U.S. regulatory hurdle for selling cultivated meat will be cleared within the next six to 12 months, and expects China to follow suit as well, where Eat Just is already selling its vegan eggs through local fast-food chain Dicos.

Commenting on the acceptability of cell-based meat among American consumers, Tetrick believes it might appear as a novelty at the beginning, but will become mainstream over time.

“The first thing to keep in mind is what often seems bizarre at first blush becomes normalized later on,” he said, “If I told you in 2002 that the majority of songs wouldn’t be bought, but streamed, that would sound weird. 

“Cultivated meat will eventually be boring, because it’ll be the meat everybody eats,” Tetrick added.

The global cultured meat is expected to grow at a 15.7% CAGR from $103 million in sales in 2020 to $248 million in 2026, Facts and Factors data showed.

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