糖心视频

Bougie salad restaurant raised $150 million, bringing the company鈥檚 valuation to $1.6 billion.

The restaurant, known for its locally-sourced made-from-scratch food, now has $478.6 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. The company plans to expand its locations into new areas like Austin, Denver and Miami, according to a .

Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily

Restaurants aren鈥檛 the type of business one thinks of as attracting venture capital, but a number of food, food-adjacent, and drink companies have pulled in venture dollars and found varying degrees of success. In fact, the $3.3 billion has been invested in food and beverage startups so far in 2019, according to , with 46 percent of those rounds invested in the seed stage.

Let鈥檚 take a look.

Wins

In the wins category, we have a few food and beverage companies that have made public exits. Chinese coffee startup went public in May after raising $550 million in total funding, according to Crunchbase; sandwich chain raised $58 million in a private equity round before going public in 2013; and popular frozen yogurt spot raised $27.5 million in its Series A in 2007 before being acquired by in 2015. All respectable exits for venture-backed food companies. also falls into the wins category, as it raised $117 million before acquired a majority stake in the company.

Losses

In terms of companies that seem like a miss, we have grilled cheese restaurant . The company raised two seed rounds in 2011 with prestigious venture capital firm and l as an investors. The Melt had a goal of opening 500 locations, according to , but now only has seven locations, all in California. It鈥檚 a long ways from the goal it set.

Uncertain

For food and drink venture-backed companies where the outcome is uncertain, and make the list.

Philz Coffee has raised $75 million in total funding to date and has a large presence in Northern California. It counts and among its investors, but what鈥檚 next for the company is unclear. Go public? Get acquired?

Zume Pizza, known for robot-cooked artisan pizza in a truck while en route to delivery, raised $423 million in total funding. The company pulled in $375 million last year from Softbank鈥檚 Vision Fund鈥攕omething the company from discussing as the Vision Fund was shrouded in controversy. Softbank also bet big on companies like Uber and WeWork, thought those investments haven鈥檛 had the best returns.

The outcome of the company is yet-to-be-known. Zume has acquired a food packaging company and started a partnership with to share its mobile trucks, .

It鈥檒l be interesting to see what happens with Sweetgreen, given how hit-or-miss food startups can be. We鈥檒l certainly be watching.

Illustration Credit: