More dough for the food industry, Bakers Circle raises $6 million in third round of funding

India’s leading frozen bakery products and confectionary dough producer, Bakers Circle India Pvt. Ltd., recently raised $6million from private equity firm Gaja Capital and existing investor DSG Consumer Partners in its third round of funding. The company raise its first round of funding from three investors, Gem India Advisors, a UK based private equity fund, Yukti Securities, an Indian investment company and a Hong Kong based investor divesting over 26% stake. HU Investment and DSG consumer were the new investors in the second round of the fund raising by Bakers Circle.

Founded in 2001, Bakers Circle functions on a B2B model of serving a host of clients that include popular chains like Cafe Coffee Day, Domino’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, KFC, Pizza Hut among many others. The Gurgaon-based company makes breads, including French baguettes, rolls, burger buns and pizza dough; flavoured cakes like chocolate & strawberry; hot & cold pies and quiches. The firm also provides laminated dough, including croissants & pastries, cookies, muffins, chocolate mousse, brownies and other confectionery products.

Bakers Circle entered international markets in early 2014. The last round of investment will be used to expand the company’s presence in India and Middle East and by entering newer markets such as Pakistan, South Africa and Lebanon. The firm has acquired land in a trade-free zone in Jebel Ali, Dubai, where it plans to build a facility (10,000 square feet) which will have the capacity to produce 18,000 sandwiches an hour. This plant will be a fully automated robotic plant.

Gaja Capital plans to buy out some existing investors by investing $5million more. “Existing investors will receive money from exit from Gaja Capital through its secondary round of funding of approximately Rs 30 crore over the next two months,” says Ranjit Kamath, Chief Financial Officer at Bakers Circle.

This is Gaja Capital’s first investment from the second fund with a corpus of $250 Million. The company seeks to invest $15-30 Mn per investment in 6-10 fast growing Indian companies as equity and equity-linked securities.