Just, Inc. (formerly known as Hampton Creek) is a food technology company developing and selling plant based food products around the world. The company is based out of San Francisco and was founded in 2011 by Joshua Tetrick and Josh Balk.
Just, Inc. makes a variety of plant based substitutes for foods which normally contain animal products. Products include Just Mayo, Just Cookies, Just Eggs, cultured meats, and more.
The Just Egg is a plant-based egg replacement and does not contain any antibiotics or cholesterol. Just Egg products are primarily made from mung beans.
Just Mayo is a plant-based (primarily pea protein) alternative to egg based mayo products. There are several flavours of Just Mayo sold by Just Inc, they are: mayo, chipotle mayo, Sriracha mayo, garlic mayo, truffle mayo, and awesome sauce (tartar substitute).
Just Dressing is a line of plant-based salad dressing replacements that include ranch, chipotle ranch, caesar, thousand, and sweet mustard.
Just Cookie Dough is made without eggs and are plant based products. There are three flavours to choose from chocolate chip, birthday cake, and chocolate mint.
Aug 16, 2016
Series D
Undisclosed
$100 milion
August 2015
Series D
$120million
Dec 2011
Seed
Khosla Ventures
$500K
December 2014
Series C
Kholsa Ventures, Horizons, Marc Benioff, OS Fund, Velos Partners, Eduardo Saverin, Jean Piggozzi, Brian Meehan, Founders Fund, Collaborative Fund
$90 million
December 2014
Series C
WP Global Partners
Velos Partners
Uni-President Enterprises Corporation
Tao Capital Partners
OS Fund
Mustafa Suleyman
Marc Benioff
Khosla Ventures
Jean Piggozzi
Horizons Ventures Logo
Horizons Ventures
$90M
Method for producing tissue engineered meat for consumption
Granted
11/17/2000
In 2015, the CEO of Just Inc (the company was called Hampton Creek at the time) Josh Tetrick brought nine allegations against the American Egg Board (AEB) and accused the AEB of conspiring against his company. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched an official year long investigation into claims made by Just Inc's CEO Josh Tetrick. The USDA concluded that the AEB did not break the law, but did exhibit inappropriate behaviour and issued "etiquette and ethics" training as a corrective measure.
On August 12, 2015 Just Inc received a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) saying that "The use of the term 'mayo' in the product names and the image of an egg may be misleading to consumers because it may lead them to believe that the products are the standardized food, mayonnaise". Despite the FDA's initial stance on Just Mayo, the FDA would eventually approve the labelling of Just Mayo as an appropriate name.
Just Inc was accused of running an undercover buyout program of their own Just Mayo products in late 2014. Contractors working for Just Inc were instructed to go into stores and purchase 20 jars of Just Mayo and to call into stores pretending to be someone looking to come in and purchase Just Mayo with the goal of convincing stores to order more Just Mayo from Just Inc. CEO of Just Inc, Josh Tetrick, says that contractors were ordered to go into stores and purchase Just Mayo as part of their own quality assurance program, and was not running a buy back program to artificially boost the perceived popularity of their Just Mayo products. Bloomberg reports that Just Inc spent $77,000 buying Just Mayo across the country on their self proclaimed quality assurance program.
Timeline
Funding Round Amount Raised: $150,000,000
Total Amount Raised: $372,530,000*
Lead Investors: Khosla Ventures, Horizons Ventures
Investors: Bill Gates, Founders Fund, Collaborative Fund, AME Cloud Ventures, Ash Patel, Eagle Cliff Partners, Jessica Powell, New Ground Ventures, Scott Banister, BlackPine Private Equity Partners, Demis Hassabis, Eduardo Saverin, Marc Beinoff, Mustafa Suleyman, Blue Horizon, Radicle Impact, Ali Partovi, Hadi Partovi, Kat Taylor, Far East Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, WP Global Partners, Jean Piggozzi, Velos Partners, OS Fund
Post-Money Valuation: $1,100,000,000
*Estimated $2-5MM devoted to clean meat
Funding Rounds
Patents
Further Resources
A Peek Inside JUST’s Clean Meat Lab
Catherine Lamb
Web article
Cell-Based Meat Patent Analysis Part 1: Memphis Meats and Just
Founders Fund Backs Its First Food Tech Startup, Hampton Creek Foods, With A $1M Investment
Anthony Ha
News article
HC_Sustainability_Indicator_Methods_FINAL_11-2017.pdf
Just Inc
Company report
Here's Why Hampton Creek's Entire Board Just Quit
Jeff Bercovici
News article