Today we’re going to bring you an inside look into a pizza company that grew from a food truck from South Korea to a so-called ‘baby unicorn’ by South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups. 

Founded in 2016, GOPIZZA is an AI powered single serve pizza brand that was known for the incorporation of technology in its operations. 

For one thing, it developed a parbaked dough recipe and an oven called Goven that allows pizza dough to be pre-made in factories and heated up within a matter of minutes at outlets, allowing pizzas to be served at a fast pace – just like hamburgers.

Aside from that, the startup also uses a smart AI topping table that guides employees on what toppings to put on their pizza and even has a camera that monitors and rates employees on how well they make their pizzas to ensure standardisation.

The firm opened its first brick-and-mortar outlet in 2018 and has since expanded to some 200 stores across South Korea, Singapore, India and Indonesia as of the end of last year. But how profitable is it to operate such a tech-enabled pizza chain? 

How does the firm position itself against traditional pizza chains, as well as newer entrants with similar propositions? 

Meanwhile, GOPIZZA is also on the charm offensive to expand globally and in particular in Thailand and the US. But what opportunities does it see in the markets and how will its VC backers, the likes of Mirae Asset Securities and CJ Investments support the firm’s growing ambitions?

On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Jay Lim, Founder and CEO, GOPIZZA.