sweetgreen Launches Mobile Payment and Rewards App, Powered by LevelUp

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - Feb 12, 2013) - Today sweetgreen, the DC-born fast-casual restaurant with farm-to-table salads, wraps and frozen yogurt, announced the launch of its mobile payments and rewards app, available for free on iPhone and Android. The sweetgreen rewards app is aligned with sweetgreen's core values to provide customers with an even easier way to find the "food that fits" while giving back to their local community.

The sweetgreen app lets you pay with your phone and easily track your progress toward your next reward. For every $100 you spend, you'll unlock $10, redeemed seamlessly just by paying with the app at any of sweetgreen's 16 locations. The app also features various "statuses" and accompanying perks that customers unlock over time as they pay with the app. Once you unlock green, gold or black status, for example, sweetgreen will donate 1% of what you spend to local charities dedicated to promoting healthy eating in schools. Currently, charities include DC Farm to School Network in the DC metro area and Fair Food in Philadelphia, but sweetgreen will add organizations to the program as it enters new markets like New York and Boston.

"Offering a unique way to eat and live, the sweetgreen loyalty app helps our customers 'pay it forward' by saving them time and money while giving back 1% of transactions to charity," said Nathaniel Ru, sweetgreen CEO and co-founder. "We're committed to doing right by our customers and community and are excited to help even more people make smarter decisions. It's a win-win-win."

While you probably won't know by looking at it, the sweetgreen app is also the first white-label app running on LevelUp. This means that all of the back-end stuff -- the loyalty tracking, customer analytics, engagement tools and security -- is powered by LevelUp's best-in-class payment infrastructure.

This also means that sweetgreen will be paying LevelUp's famous 0% interchange on any transaction made through the app. To celebrate, a number of sweetgreen locations will embark on a "credit card diet" towards the end of the month.

So what on Earth is a credit card diet?

cred·it card di·et. noun. A period of time in which one's business limits acceptable payment types to LevelUp and cash only, thus eliminating the need to pay credit card processing fees. This diet improves the health of the business AND the greater economy.

"Because our app is powered by LevelUp, we will save thousands of dollars annually on credit card fees," said Ru. "Not only is this good for our business, but it's great for our customers and our community: we share the savings with customers in the form of rewards, and with charities by way of donations. It's another win-win-win."

"We couldn't be happier to have sweetgreen as the first partner to launch a white-label app on LevelUp's infrastructure," said Seth Priebatsch, chief ninja of LevelUp. "sweetgreen is a great brand not just in the food they serve, but in how they view the entire customer experience. I know the sweetgreen app will make an already incredible customer experience even better."

To learn more about LevelUp White-Label, visit www.thelevelup.com/white-label, or email enterprise@thelevelup.com.

The sweetgreen rewards app is the new and improved version of the company's current loyalty program, which will be honored in stores through March 11, 2013. To download the app, just search for "sweetgreen" in the App Store or Google Play.

sweetgreen's annual sweetlife festival will be held on May 11 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion. Tickets are available online at http://sweetlifefestival.com/.

About sweetgreen
Founded in 2007, sweetgreen is the answer to a new era of healthy, sustainable, fast-casual dining. With a commitment to sourcing local and organic ingredients, sweetgreen serves up farm-to-table salads, wraps and frozen yogurt in a unique, chic atmosphere. With 16 locations in the DC and Philadelphia metro areas, sweetgreen is also the force behind the annual sweetlife festival, a nationally-recognized celebration of music + food. To learn more, visit sweetgreen.com and follow sweetgreen on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

About LevelUp
LevelUp is a revolutionary new way to pay. Users pay with their phone, saving time and money. Businesses pay 0% payment processing fees and re-invest those savings into growing their businesses by attracting new customers and bringing them back. LevelUp is a part of SCVNGR which is backed by Google Ventures, Balderton Capital, Continental Investors, Highland Capital, Transmedia Capital and T-Venture, the venture arm of Deutsche-Telekom.