NEW YORK — Just Salad, a fast-casual restaurant chain that began in NYC, has raised $200 million in capital from an investor group led by Wellington Management, alongside D1 Capital Partners, Neuberger Berman, and Stripes. The capital raise values the company at approximately $1 billion. Proceeds of the transaction will be used to support new unit growth as well as continued investment in menu innovation, advanced technology initiatives and customer experience.
“The quick-service food industry is in the early days of disruption, and the average consumer desperately wants healthy, craveable, convenient and accessible options; no one does that better than Just Salad,” said Nick Kenner, Founder & CEO of Just Salad. “We are proud to partner with world-class investors like Wellington, D1, Neuberger Berman, and Stripes to propel our next phase of growth. We have a tremendous runway to build Just Salad into a leading national restaurant brand, and this investment demonstrates the confidence in that opportunity and our team’s ability to achieve that goal.”
Just Salad opened in New York City in 2006 to meet the demand for those in Midtown wanting fast, healthy, and sustainable offerings. Since then, Just Salad has successfully expanded its menu to include salads, wraps, warm bowls, soups and smoothies, all prepared with homemade dressings, prepped-daily produce, from-scratch recipes and fresh, flavorful ingredients. Proteins are marinated overnight and cooked fresh in the restaurant throughout the entire day.
Just Salad operates nearly 100 locations across urban and residential markets in New York, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Just Salad’s intense focus on the customer experience and disciplined real estate selection process have driven best-in-class unit economics and industry-leading same store sales growth supported by increased traffic, all leading to dramatic revenue growth and strong profitability at both the store and enterprise-level.
Just Salad is a Certified B Corporation, committed to meeting high standards for social and environmental performance. As the home to the longest-running reusable bowl program in the U.S. restaurant industry, Just Salad prevents approximately 43,000lbs of single-use packaging waste each year. Since 2021, the company has saved over 160,000 meals from landfills and avoided more than 430,000 kg of CO2e through its partnership with Too Good to Go.