Most people have never heard of Captain Fresh.
In 2020, Utham Gowda walked into Z47's office with one belief: take a shrimp from Chennai to New York, and it's a very profitable business. Nobody believed him. He built it anyway.
Five years later: ₹10,000 Cr in revenue. ₹550 Cr EBITDA (annualised Q4 FY26). Distribution across 15 of the top 20 European retailers. One-third of the white-cloth restaurant market in the US. Three oceans, six countries, ten acquisitions — zero leverage, 100% management rollover on every deal.
And by Utham's own accounting, another ₹600-700 Cr of EBITDA still on the table.
In this episode, Z47's Sudipto Sannigrahi and Tarun Davda sit down with Utham in Bangalore for the most detailed conversation he's had on how Captain Fresh was designed, how it survived the most volatile macro environment in years, and what comes next, ahead of what is shaping up to be one of India's most significant IPOs.
The quiet empire is about to become impossible to ignore.
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