South Korea’s fertility drawback is ‘no joke,’ says Gopizza founder Jay Lim

Gopizza, with its quick service and bite-size pizzas, received 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, so as to give his enterprise one of the best probability to outlive.

The rationale? South Korea’s file low beginning fee. “The fertility fee isn’t any joke,” Lim says. “300 thousand persons are disappearing yearly, so it’s an enormous situation.”

South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility fee, at 0.72 births per lady in 2023. Meaning, barring some change, Korea’s shopper market is shrinking.

To make issues tougher, South Korea’s meals sector is very aggressive. “We’ve a vastly shrinking market and on the identical time the very best competitors on the earth statistically. That results in investor doubts or skepticism in our business, which implies we will’t get funding, which implies we will’t develop quick sufficient,” Lim explains. 

Gopizza goes international

Gopizza claims to be South Korea’s Eleventh-largest pizza model, citing its personal analysis utilizing information registered with Korea’s Truthful Commerce Fee. The startup additionally says it’s the main South Korean pizza model globally, primarily based 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 international market after India. Lim says increasing to Singapore was carried out with buyers in thoughts: Succeeding in Singapore, a small nation with a aggressive market, would show to buyers 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 broaden 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 shortage of one-person pizza choices whereas he was a pupil 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 “necessary part” of the enterprise.

Gopizza can also be investing in an AI-powered oven, which it calls the “Goven.” The oven scores pizzas primarily based on toppings, permitting Gopizza executives to trace consistency throughout completely different retailers globally. 

Lim argues that the AI oven might be a brand new income stream for Gopizza if the startup can persuade different pizza chains that the “Goven” delivers outcomes. “That’s the following chapter. It’s changing into like a tech firm,” he says.