Eat Just
 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. (February 2014) |
 | |
| Industry | Food technology |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2011 |
| Founder | Joshua Tetrick and Josh Balk |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Website | hamptoncreekfoods |
Hampton Creek Foods, Inc. is a food company headquartered in Northern California that focuses on finding new ways of utilizing plants to replace eggs in a variety of different products. Investors include Bill Gates (through Khosla Ventures,[1]), as well as Peter Thiel's Founders Fund,[2] Eagle Cliff Partners[3] and Collaborative Fund[4]. The company was founded in December 2011 by CEO, Joshua Tetrick[5] and Josh Balk, the Director of Food Policy at the Humane Society of the United States.
Hampton Creek Foods have been featured in a variety of media outlets, including a special on the future of food by Bill Gates,[6] as well as in a feature article in Forbes Magazine[7] and The New York Times.[8]
Background
Hampton Creek was conceptualized by Joshua Tetrick and Josh Balk in the summer of 2011. Just a few months later, in December 2011, it received a seed round of funding in the amount of $500,000 from Khosla Ventures.[9] Early R&D was conducted at a small facility in Los Angeles, CA. Hampton Creek also initially worked remotely with a product development team at Mattson in San Mateo as well as with Homaro Cantu and his staff at Cantu Designs in Chicago, IL.
Relocation & Growth
In June 2012, Hampton Creek relocated from Southern California to a large facility in downtown San Francisco. That same month, it also received its Series A round of funding from Khosla Ventures, in the amount of $1.5 million. It immediately began expanding the team as well as the headquarters. One of the first new hires was a former Top Chef contestant, Chef Chris Jones.[10] Hampton Creek also became one of only three companies selected by Bill Gates to be featured on his website in a special called, The Future of Food.[11] Other notable team members include Joshua Klein, PhD, who worked on HIV drug therapy research prior to working for Hampton Creek, as well as Oliver Ryan, who formerly headed the recruiting team at Twitter as well as 23andMe.
Products
Hampton Creek's first product is a mayonnaise called Just Mayo.[12] Their manufacturing partners are placed around the country - in TN, WA, and Southern California. Additionally, they are also setting up production partnerships in India, Western Europe, and Hong Kong. Hampton Creek also has other products in development, including a cookie dough that can be eaten raw or baked up into cookies, called Eat The Dough, and Just Scramble, the world's first plant-based scrambled egg. Eat The Dough was first featured by Katie Couric's talk show, "Katie," on February 4th, 2014. Hampton Creek is also working with numerous corporations on removing eggs from existing products already on the market.[13] https://twitter.com/hcfoods
Future
Hampton Creek is currently[when?] working with at least seven Fortune 500 companies, both retailers and manufacturers.[citation needed] To date[when?], they have over 200 team members in 10 locations around the US.[citation needed] In addition to the R&D team, members include experts in production, logistics, and distribution.
References
- ^ http://www.khoslaventures.com/sustainability.html
- ^ http://www.foundersfund.com/company/hampton-creek
- ^ http://www.eaglecliffpartners.com/portfolio-companies.html
- ^ http://collaborativefund.com/
- ^ Hampton Creek Foods, TechCrunch
- ^ Future of Food, The Gates Notes
- ^ [1], Forbes
- ^ [2], The New York Times
- ^ PopSci Q&A: The Quest For The Egg-Free Egg, PopSci
- ^ Chris Jones, Chicago Eater
- ^ Bill Gates: Food Is Ripe for Innovation, Mashable
- ^ Venture capitalists are making bigger bets on food start ups. The New York Times. 29 April 2013
- ^ New eff replacer could overcome labelling challenges, Bakeryandsnacks.com