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Eat Just looks to crack into the market with a $3B IPO

Cultured protein maker Eat Just is targeting a $3 billion initial public offering in Q4 2021 or early in 2022, Forbes reported after receiving information from a leading investor in the plant-based egg producing company.

This recent revelation indicates that Bloomberg’s original estimation last October that the company would go public with a $2 billion valuation was well under current estimations. Forbes reported that company CEO Josh Tetrick estimates the company’s current valuation at “north of $1 billion.”

Eat Just has been eyeing an IPO for months now. Last year, Tetrick said in an interview with FoodNavigator that going public was in the cards once his company reached profitability, which he intended to happen in 2021.

The ambitious valuation that the company is considering may not be far-fetched. In March, the company’s egg division raised $200 in a round led by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). At that time, the company said its total funding since its founding in 2011 was $650 million. Add to that Eat Just’s subsidiary Good Meat, and there is big money rolling into this plant-based startups’ coffers. In May, Eat Just’s meat division Good Meat hooked $170 million in venture capital.

Nor is capital is rolling into the bank accounts of Eat Just just based on empty promises. This San Francisco startup is the first and still only company to commercially sell cell-based meat. In December of 2020 the Singaporean government approved Eat Just’s cultured meat for commercial sale. Eat Just is now looking to leverage its regulatory approval in Singapore as a springboard to receive additional approvals from other governments worldwide for its cell-based meat.

Forbes reported that the company anticipates U.S. regulatory approval for its cell-based products in the next six to 12 months with approval from China set to follow after. Already the company sells its vegan eggs under its Eat Just brand in both countries.

This announcement of a $3 billion valuation has raised questions as to whether Eat Just will spin off Good Meat into its own company as the companies have raised funds separately and their R&D initiatives remain independent. Still, there are many questions about the future of cultured meat, and consequently, Eat Just. As a result, the future of this company is largely dependent on the favorable outcomes of international regulators that are evaluating the safety and feasibility of this new category of protein. Should the chips fall in favor of Eat Just, filing an IPO is likely to be only the beginning of this company's initiatives to propel its upward growth trajectory as it strives to remain at the head of the pack for cultured protein.