In her latest bid for expansion, Slutty Vegan Founder and CEO Aisha “Pinky” Cole has raised $25m through a Series A funding round that values her four-year old brand at $100m.
And what a four years it’s been so far. Holding the fort as a vegan restaurant in Atlanta, Slutty Vegan now also has a vast range of products such as kettle chips, clothing merchandise, food products in retail stores and event an upcoming cookbook titled Eat Plants Bitch. In addition, it is believed a major grocery store has ordered 60,000 units of Slutty Vegan dip in flavours such as Bangin’ Hot-Lanta Chik’n.
But it’s still not complete as Cole intends to expand beyond Atlanta and into markets such as Brooklyn and Baltimore. In fact, she aims to create “a billion-dollar brand.”
Ten new Slutty Vegan venues
And with the latest $25m, Cole intends to open ten Slutty Vegan venues by the end of this year, as well as another ten in 2023. Her intention is to hire a Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer to help manage the company’s growth.
The development of Cole’s Slutty Vegan empire is in part due to the experts within her lead investment team. In particular, Entrepreneur Richelieu Dennis’ New Voices Fund and Restaurateur Danny Meyer’s Enlightened Hospitality Investments. Dennis is the founder of Sundial Brands. You may remember we brought news to you about Sundial and its new partnership in launching Sundial Wings.
Meyer has previously created Michelin-star restaurants as well as Shake Shack, the fast food chain. This reputed success led Cole to describe him by saying: “I got the Michael Jordan of food on my team.”
Self-described growth equity partner, New Voices Fund, was founded in 2015. Its aim is to help black women develop and grow their businesses. From New Voices Fund, Richelieu Dennis commented: “It’s about partnering with these incredible entrepreneurs and their businesses to drive real scale and growth and create wealth for those founders.
“And that’s what Pinky has done here and continues to do. This new round of investments will rapidly transform not just the vegan restaurant industry but will drive an incredible amount of health initiatives and food options for the Black community that may not have existed yet.”
Sanctuary of fun
What we love about the Slutty Vegan brand is its energy which Cole says represents her own personality. You can’t help but feel happy when you visit one of the restaurants and feed off the atmosphere.
Cole best describes it as: “When you walk into the doors of Slutty Vegan, it’s like coming into a sanctuary of fun. We’re yelling at you. We’re dancing. We got Hip Hop music busting through the speakers. You got people calling you a slut. You get your food. You got alcohol. It’s a party atmosphere.”
We can’t wait to see what comes next for Slutty Vegan!
