US-based healthy restaurant chain Sweetgreen filed to go public yesterday in an initial public offering which would represent an exit for entertainment agency Roc Nation’s investment vehicle, Arrive.
Sweetgreen runs a chain of 140 restaurants which sell and deliver healthy fast food such as salads or vegetable bowls. It increased revenue 51% year on year to approximately $243m in the first nine months of 2021 while lowering its net loss from $100m to $87m in the same period.
The company closed a $114m series J round in February this year featuring investment and financial services group Fidelity, D1 Capital Partners, Lone Pine Capital and Anchorage Capital, according to the IPO filing.
Lone Pine Capital and D1 Capital Partners co-led Sweetgreen’s $150m series I round in September 2019 at a $1.6bn valuation, investing alongside backers including Fidelity, T Rowe Price and Anchorage Capital.
Fidelity had already led a $200m series H round for the company the previous year at a post-money valuation topping $1bn, reportedly increasing its total funding to $365m.
Arrive has not revealed when it invested but identifies Sweetgreen as a portfolio company on its website. The company’s earlier investors include Revolution Growth, Red Sea Ventures, LDR Ventures, Breakaway and Collaborative Fund.
Sweetgreen has not disclosed their precise stake sizes but the IPO filing indicates Fidelity, T Rowe Price, Revolution Growth, D1 Capital Partners, Anchorage Capital and Lone Pine Capital are the investors which hold stakes sized at 5% or over.
The company has set a $100m placeholder target for the offering, which is slated to take place on the New York Stock Exchange. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have been appointed lead book-running managers.
Allen & Company, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Global Markets, Cowen and Company, Oppenheimer, RBC Capital Markets and William Blair are book-running managers for the IPO while Amerivet Securities and Blaylock Van are co-managers.
Photo courtesy of Sweetgreen, Inc.
