GrowthPoint Completes Second Round of Financing in Chopt Creative Salad Company

GrowthPoint Partners, a venture fund focused on early stage restaurant companies, recently led an $8.5 million, Series B financing for Chopt Creative Salad Company, a concept which serves fresh, handcrafted salads. The company currently has three locations in New York City.

Funds will be used for expansion of company-owned stores in NYC and Washington, DC. The founders, Tony Shure and Colin McCabe, opened their first restaurant in NYC in 2002.

“We were attracted to the unit economics, which are well above industry standards,” said Nick Marsh, founder of GrowthPoint Partners. “But we were just as attracted to Tony’s and Colin’s commitment to the product quality and the guest experience.”

Marsh, formerly founder and President of Cosi Restaurants, is focused solely on making investments in early stage restaurant concepts. “Our goal is to put together a team of resources that can help a concept with three or four units make the transition into a company with 20 to 25 units. At this stage, now they are attractive to a larger pool of investors,” he said. GrowthPoint brings to the table resources such as financial and accounting infrastructure, growth strategy and real estate resources and HR and administration support. The investment team includes David Mansbach and Keith Kefgen of HVS Executive Search, Managing Director and Founder of an executive search firm specializing in the chain restaurant industry.

“We don’t try to interfere with the vision and the concept developed by entrepreneurs. We just know where some of the pitfalls of growth lie,” Marsh added.

Other investors include Prime Capital of NYC, founded by Marc Cummins, previously Managing Partner of Catterton Partners, and Haebler Capital of Greenwich, Conn.

For more information on GrowthPoint Partners, contact Nick Marsh, founder, at 212-651-3403, or by e-mail at nickmarsh@growthpt.com.