Silicon Valley Billionaire Backs Hampton Creek

Vinod Khosla—founder of Silicon Valley investment firm Khosla Ventures—was featured last week on the online interview series Bloomberg Studio 1.0, where he spoke at length about his company’s investment with the vegan startup Hampton Creek. When asked about recent allegations surrounding an employee buyback of Hampton Creek’s premier product Just Mayo, Khosla said that the claims are “completely irrelevant” to his investment decisions. Khosla also made mention of the illegal cover-up against the company by the American Egg Board and the United States Department of Agriculture—schemes that are documented in the 600 email exchanges made public last year. “The American Egg Board was plotting to destroy Hampton Creek because the egg industry hated them,” Khosla said. “There are many enemies the company has … there are interests involved here … people that are being disrupted.” Interviewer Emily Chang asked Khosla if he believes Hampton Creek is still viable, to which Khosla responded that the company has already succeeded in bringing awareness to the practice of male chick culling, battery cage confinement of egg-laying hens, and other cruel practices inherent in egg production. “Even if [Hampton Creek] is not successful, they will have made a difference by bringing visibility to these real issues that the egg industry is trying to distract from,” Khosla said.