sweetgreen today announced the closing of a $150 million financing round, co-led by Lone Pine Capital and D1 Capital Partners with participation from existing investors, valuing the company at $1.6 billion.
Since launching in 2007, sweetgreen has been disrupting the $800 billion US restaurant industry by rethinking the customer experience and challenging traditional ways of what it means to be a fast food company.
“We’re building a new type of food company and a sustainable supply chain to challenge how we think about real food, explore innovative new retail formats, and elevate the consumer experience,” said Jonathan Neman, co-founder and CEO of sweetgreen. “This foundation will allow us to push boundaries and broaden our impact, doing even more with our suppliers, partners, and technology so that together we can bring about industry-wide change.”
The capital enables sweetgreen to make strategic investments in technology, data, supply chain, and social impact. With over 50% of sweetgreen orders taking place through digital channels, mobile dining has swiftly become the next phase for the future of food. To meet the expectations of its evolving customer base, sweetgreen will test and deploy emerging technologies and new models, including:
Rapid growth of Outpost: sweetgreen plans to enhance and expand Outpost, a solution for free delivery at offices. What started a year ago as only 13 Outpost locations has grown to over 400 with an expected 600 locations by end of this year.
Expansion into new cities: In 2020 sweetgreen is continuing to expand into new cities including: Miami, FL, Denver, CO and Austin, TX. sweetgreen’s omni-channel strategy of leveraging digital ordering and Outpost combined with physical stores has become a unique way to introduce new customers to the brand.
Launch of sweetgreen delivery: sweetgreen will launch delivery on its own app in 2020 creating another channel to meet customers wherever they are.
Investment in social impact: sweetgreen intends to continue to support FoodCorps’ work in schools and cafeterias, where their hands-on learning gets kids to eat 3x more fruits and veggies. sweetgreen provided $1M in funding to support the next phase of FoodCorps’ work in cafeterias, while working together to address systemic challenges to serving healthy, high-quality food in schools.
To learn more about sweetgreen, visit www.sweetgreen.com. Follow sweetgreen on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @sweetgreen.
J.P. Morgan acted as sole placement agent for sweetgreen on the offering.
About sweetgreen
Founded in 2007, sweetgreen passionately believes that real food should be convenient and accessible to everyone. Every day, across its 97 restaurants, over 4,000 team members make food from scratch, using fresh ingredients and produce delivered that morning. sweetgreen’s strong food ethos and investment in local communities have enabled them to grow into a national brand with a mission to build healthier communities by connecting people to real food.
sweetgreen.com