The Dough Therapy | Rs 5.25 Cr (Seed)

Founders: Abhishek Dedhia, Mohit Chheda, Gaurav Majrekar

Founded: November 2020

HQ: Mumbai

Sector: Food & Beverage / Gourmet Pizza

What they do

→ Gourmet pizza brand that started with a focus on vegetarian pizza

→ Offers 30+ varieties of vegetarian and vegan gourmet pizzas

→ Grew from a single Mumbai outlet to 10 outlets

→ Expands through company-owned outlets, select dine-in formats and franchise partnerships

The Funding

→ Raised Rs 5.25 crore at a Rs 35 crore valuation in its first institutional seed round

→ Led by Michigan Capital Advisors Ltd. (MCAL), formerly Melwani Finance Limited, with Equiglobe Investment participating

→ 60% of funds for expansion, 15% for marketing, 25% for supply chain, centralised operations and kitchen tech

Why it matters

→ Plans to double outlets from 10 to 20 over the next 12 months

→ Eyeing entry into new cities across India beyond Mumbai

→ Bootstrapped to 10 outlets before taking institutional money (no prior institutional funding disclosed)

→ Shows investor appetite for focused, vegetarian-first F&B brands in India’s growing QSR space

Can a niche vegetarian gourmet pizza brand scale across India without losing what made it special?