sweetgreen has acquired Galley

Fast-casual salad chain sweetgreen has acquired meal-delivery startup Galley for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock. Both of the D.C.-homegrown companies will merge in sweetgreen’s first-ever acquisition.

Sweetgreen was founded in D.C. in 2007 before moving its headquarters to California. The company has more than 90 locations throughout the U.S., Forbes reported last year at a time when cofounder Jonathan Neman expressed that sweetgreen wanted to go beyond a food company and become a platform this year.

“We’re both companies with D.C. roots, and we’re like-minded in our mission and in our commitment to our customers to better understand them and meet them wherever they are,” Neman said in a news release.

With the acquisition of Galley, sweetgreen will leverage Galley’s knowledge of logistics tech, live courier operations and high-volume production, a press release states. Galley will continue to operate as its own entity in D.C., while leveraging sweetgreen’s reach. Galley’s current CEO, Alan Clifford, will join sweetgreen as VP of logistics, while the rest of the team will merge with sweetgreen’s team.

This announcement comes after Galley expanded to serve 10 states up and down the East Coast back in September 2018. The meal-deliver startup also recently began making Saturday deliveries in D.C. and Northern Virginia. It is unclear if Galley will continue to serve markets outside of D.C.

With this acquisition, Galley and sweetgreen are launching a partnership in D.C. with Dreaming Out Loud, a nonprofit that promotes food equity, the press release states. Galley and sweetgreen will offer prepared meals to families who participate in the summer Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program at Kelly Miller Middle School’s urban farm. Over 50 households will receive Galley meals in July, that will include tips and tricks to prepare dinner at home with local healthy ingredients.