Ahimsa Foundation, a nonprofit, provided $16 million in new capital to help Eat Just grow and become sustainable, said Satish Karandikar, a principal at Ahimsa and VegInvest Trust. Both organizations have been significant investors in Eat Just and share the company’s goal of working toward a more humane food system, he said.
Neither side of Eat Just’s business makes money. The company has been unable to pay bills from some of its business partners, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing the company’s internal business. In February, Eat Just laid off about 18% of employees.
Eat Just’s financial struggles underscore how difficult it is to make money in the alternative-protein business. Its plant-based “egg” products — made from mung beans and designed to look, taste and scramble like chicken eggs — are available in the US and abroad in supermarkets and restaurants, and sales are growing.
Eat Just began with vegan egg products and then expanded into cultivated meat, which has been even more expensive than the company initially anticipated, Tetrick said in an interview. He hopes to bring those costs down to compete with commodity meat prices, but that will take time and scale.