Raising Cane’s Founder Has $11.5 Billion Fortune as Sales Surge-OxBig News Network

Chicken-fingers entrepreneur Todd Graves is now worth $11.5 billion after his restaurant chain boosted sales by more than a third last year. 

Raising Cane’s booked revenue of $5.1 billion in 2024, an increase of about 34%, according to a person familiar with the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based company’s results. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were $928 million, an 18% increase. The fast-casual chain added more than 137 locations, bringing the total to more than 900. 

A spokesperson for Raising Cane’s declined to comment.

Graves, 53, owns about 90% of Raising Cane’s. The company operates almost all of its restaurants rather than franchising, with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index valuing the business at about $12.3 billion. Third-party estimates put the value at $22 billion to $26 billion, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. 

Graves opened the first Raising Cane’s in 1996 on the campus of Louisiana State University. He saved for the venture across a variety of jobs, including fishing for sockeye salmon in Alaska and working at a California oil refinery. 

Some of Graves’ fortune has gone into real estate. In June, he agreed to pay $15 million for a roughly 4,000-square-foot penthouse apartment in Nashville. He also bought a two-floor penthouse under construction in Dallas’ Knox Street luxury condo building. 

Graves also collects historical artifacts, including a 66-million-year-old triceratops skull. 

He made two guest appearances on the television program Shark Tank last year, agreeing to invest about $700,000 in four companies.

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