As a college scholar in Singapore over a decade in the past, Jay Lim was annoyed: He couldn’t get a pizza only for himself. The shortage of “personal pizza options” drove him to create the startup Gopizza on his return to South Korea in 2016.
Gopizza, with its quick service and bite-size pizzas, gained an viewers amongst hungry Koreans. However simply three years after founding the enterprise, Lim was already wanting abroad. The Gopizza founder first went to India, after which to Southeast Asia, with a view to give his enterprise one of the best probability to outlive.
The rationale? South Korea’s report low beginning price. “The fertility rate is no joke,” Lim says. “Three hundred thousand people are disappearing every year, so it’s a huge issue.”
South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility price, at 0.72 births per lady in 2023. Meaning, barring some change, Korea’s client market is shrinking.
To make issues harder, South Korea’s meals sector is very aggressive. “We have a vastly shrinking market and at the same time the highest competition in the world statistically. That leads to investor doubts or skepticism in our industry, which means we can’t get investment, which means we can’t grow fast enough,” Lim explains.
Gopizza goes world
Gopizza claims to be South Korea’s Eleventh-largest pizza model, citing its personal analysis utilizing knowledge registered with Korea’s Truthful Commerce Fee. The startup additionally says it’s the main South Korean pizza model globally, based mostly on retailer depend.
Gopizza first expanded to India in 2019, simply three years after its founding. The startup now has over 50 retailers within the nation and a menu that caters to the Indian market.
Gopizza can also be in Singapore, its second-largest world market after India. Lim says increasing to Singapore was accomplished with traders in thoughts: Succeeding in Singapore, a small nation with a aggressive market, would show to traders that Gopizza had potential.
Courtesy of Gopizza
Gopizza is now Singapore’s third-largest pizza model, Lim claims. The founder credit the startup’s success in Singapore for a $10 million funding by Thai conglomerate CP All in June.
Gopizza can also be trying to increase into Indonesia and Thailand. Lim hopes to have his pizzas served within the latter nation’s 7-Eleven comfort shops, operated by his backer CP All.
Beginning Gopizza
The concept of Gopizza got here from Lim’s frustration over the dearth of one-person pizza choices whereas he was a scholar at Singapore Administration College.
Upon returning to Korea, Lim labored part-time in a pizza restaurant, and decided that point was wasted in ready for the dough to rise and baking the pizza.
Lim determined to make use of partially baked dough to save lots of time. Gopizza now has its personal proprietary dough, which Lim calls an “important component” of the enterprise.
Gopizza can also be investing in an AI-powered oven, which it calls the “Goven.” The oven scores pizzas based mostly on toppings, permitting Gopizza executives to trace consistency throughout completely different retailers globally.
Lim argues that the AI oven could possibly be a brand new income stream for Gopizza if the startup can persuade different pizza chains that the “Goven” delivers outcomes. “That’s the next chapter. It’s becoming like a tech company,” he says.
