Sawaya Segalas

Sawaya Segalas

Sawaya Segalas operates as a specialized mergers-and-acquisitions advisory firm headquartered in New York. Co-founders Elisa Segalas and John Sawaya established the practice to serve mid-market consumer companies, carving a niche that spans food, beverage, personal care, and pet products. The firm has become a discreet dealmaker for founder-led brands seeking exits to strategic acquirers or private equity sponsors. The firm advises on sell-side and buy-side transactions exclusively within the consumer landscape. Its deal sheet includes the sale of hot sauce brand Cholula to L Catterton, the sale of kombucha leader Kevita to PepsiCo, and the acquisition of Dr. Elsey's pet products by Gryphon Investors. The firm typically represents companies with enterprise values between $50 million and $500 million, managing full auction processes, strategic alternatives reviews, and targeted buyer outreach to multinational CPG conglomerates, private equity groups, and family offices. Sawaya Segalas fields a compact senior team drawn from investment banking and consumer operating backgrounds. The firm does not publicly disclose assets under management or advisory volumes, operating instead on a classic investment-banking model of transaction success fees. Adjacent vehicles or wealth-management arms are not reported. The partnership structure and the deliberate absence of conflicting trading or lending desks remain central to its independent-advisory pitch. A defining structural feature is its single-sector concentration. Unlike bulge-bracket consumer teams that cross-sell financing or balance-sheet products, Sawaya Segalas derives its entire revenue stream from consumer M&A advisory. That focus creates a dense network of relationships with strategic buyers and mid-market private equity funds active in branded consumer goods — a structural differentiator that echoes the firm's foundational wager that specialization beats scale for founder-entrepreneurs navigating an exit.