Josh Tetrick’s Hampton Creek Raises $23 Million For Plant-grown Egg Substitute : Li-Ka Shing Part of Investment Group

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Tetrick’s startup is one of the pioneers in the development of egg-free food alternatives.

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Josh Tetrick, cofounder and CEO  of Hampton Creek Foods, who have become biennials in the fast-growing industry developing egg-free food alternatives has succeeded in raising $23 million in series B funding.

Among the principal investors this time around is Asia’s wealthiest man, Li Ka-shing with a personal fortune of around $35 billion dollars.  Li has invested $15.5 million through the private technology investment firm, Horizons Ventures, which he controls.

Other participants in Hampton Creek Foods  Series B funding round include AME Cloud Ventures, owned by Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang  as well as previous investors Khosla Ventures, Vinod Khosla is considered to be one of the three most important people in the venture capital community ,  and hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer, known for his strong views on preserving the ecology.

Through adding Li Ka-shing to his  short but solid list of investors, Josh Tetrick can now boast of having to all the world’s wealthiest people on board with Bill Gates also having participated in the past round of funding.

Tetrick founded the company in June, 2011 in partnership with his longtime close friend Josh Balk with an eye to producing such basic products as mayonnaise and cookie dough, without any eggs being involved in the process.

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Josh Tetrick and Mr. Li Ka-shing in the kitchen

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Hampton Creek Foods  products are entirely plant-based, with   scientists employed by the company having scoured the world in search of the ideal plant matter that could take the place of eggs in  the production of  a variety of  products. To date the company has identified a total of eleven plants who have been discovered to be a more effective ingredient than the chicken egg as a raw material.

According to Josh Tetrick the planning concept was to create a product that would not only replace the standard egg used on the breakfast table or to produce  an omelette,  but also to find a replacement in foods that  are normally produced as a high egg content, such as number of baked goods and particularly mayonnaise.

Statistics show  that more than 1.3 billion eggs  are laid annually in the United States alone, with more than a third  of these eggs being used as ingredients in other food products.

The two Joshes are making no secret of the fact that their long-term goal is not a major chunk in the egg production industry obsolete, which generates billions of dollars a year, through the provision of plant-based alternatives, which the company owners claim are considerably less expensive, healthier to eat and considerably kinder to the chicken population of the world.

What may well have made investing in Hampton Creek an  attractive prospect for Li Ka-shing is the considerable foothold that the company have already made in China, which according to Tetrick generates close to 40% of the entire global consumption of eggs.

With the massive country  and is more than one billion population becoming increasingly dependent on egg and other chicken products, which their problematic background of being a breeding ground for avian flu viruses, Hampton Creek will be ideally placed to offer a reasonable alternative  that could  eliminate the fear of health risks while at the same time providing affordable food options.

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Josh Tetrick  gained his undergraduate degree at Cornell University going on to study for his JD at the University of Michigan Law School.

After graduating Josh spent more than seven years in Sub-Saharan Africa, where he was involved  in a number of   social and environmental campaigns, including heading a United Nations initiative in Kenya as well as teaching street children in a number of African countries.  .

After returning to the United States,  Tetrick was involved in the launch of 33needs a crowdfunding platform, to fill the function of connecting social entrepreneurs to investors, whilst becoming a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, writing articles on animal protection, business, and entrepreneurship.

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