Mumbai's gourmet pizza scene has a new backer. The Dough Therapy, a Mumbai-based gourmet pizza brand, has raised ₹5.25 crore at a ₹35 crore valuation in its first institutional seed round. The round was led by Michigan Capital Advisors Ltd. (MCAL), formerly Melwani Finance Limited, with participation from Equiglobe Investment Pvt. Ltd.
Founded in November 2020 by three friends — Abhishek Dedhia, Mohit Chheda and Gaurav Majrekar — the brand has built a 100% vegetarian and vegan pizza menu with 30+ varieties across 10 outlets in Mumbai. The founders credit Tiger Assets founder Raghav Chaudhary with visualising the business's potential and bringing the investors together.
The capital deployment is explicit: 60% for expansion, 15% for marketing, and 25% for supply chain, centralised operations and kitchen technology. The plan is to double to 20 outlets within 12 months and enter new cities, using a mix of company-owned outlets, dine-in formats and franchise partnerships.
The vegetarian/vegan-only positioning is deliberate — it lets the brand own a distinct lane in India's crowded pizza market, where most national chains lead with non-vegetarian menus. A centralised supply chain and kitchen technology investment suggests the founders are building for multi-city consistency from day one.
For a brand founded during the pandemic's delivery boom, moving into dine-in and franchise formats marks a maturity shift: from cloud-kitchen economics to a full-stack restaurant brand with owned IP and a franchise playbook.
Why it matters for founders
The Dough Therapy's ₹5.25cr seed shows that regional F&B brands with 10 profitable outlets and a sharp positioning can raise institutional capital for a doubling-down expansion. The 60/15/25 capital split is a clean template: growth first, brand second, supply-chain discipline always. If you're a city-level food brand eyeing multi-city scale, this is the blueprint investors are buying.