The Pizza Bakery owner Popo Global secures Rs 532 crore investment from Artal Asia

Bengaluru-based restaurant company Popo Global has secured a Rs 532 crore investment from Artal Asia in exchange for a significant minority stake. The company operates The Pizza Bakery, Paris Panini and Smash Guys, and plans to use the partnership to support the expansion of its restaurant brands across India. The deal marks the first external institutional investment in the business, which had previously largely funded its own growth. Brothers Nikhil Gupta and Abhijit “AB” Gupta began the restaurant business with The Pizza Bakery in Bengaluru in 2017. It has since developed into a three-brand restaurant group with more than 40 outlets. The group operates its restaurants directly rather than through a franchise-led model. Nikhil and AB Gupta said “9 years ago, we were trying to figure out how to make one great pizza. We didn't set out to build a leading restaurant company, and certainly not to be talking one day about bringing in a global investor.” “What we did have was an obsession with making food people genuinely wanted to come back for, and a slightly irrational belief that restaurants could be built differently,” they said. They added “That belief became a business, then three brands, and now a platform we think can be much bigger than any one of them. Bringing Artal Asia into Popo lets us think considerably bigger while keeping the spirit that got us here - never cutting any corners on quality. The best part is that this still feels like the beginning. We have a few more ovens to play with now.” The investment follows an earlier process to bring an outside investor into the business. “Our mission is to empower exceptional entrepreneurs to transform their industries. We are proud to support Popo Global in continuing their customer and product obsession at greater scale,” Lee Swee Yin, director at Artal Asia, said. The Rainmaker Group acted as exclusive financial adviser to Popo Global on the transaction, while Invus was global investment adviser to Artal Asia. Avijit Goel, partner at The Rainmaker Group, said “With Artal Asia’s patient capital and global operating expertise, this fundamentally well-run, Bangalore-born company is well-positioned to become India's most-loved restaurant business.”