GoPizza: gotta go fast

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Hello readers,

I first learned about GoPizza, a tech-enabled pizza chain from South Korea, while watching a Korean variety show called Sixth Sense.

Starring some famous celebrities, like comedian and host Yoo Jae-suk, the show revolved around the cast visiting three locations and trying to figure out which one is a fake, playing games to gain clues and exchanging silly banter.

GoPizza was obviously not the fake in the episode it featured in, because it’s the focus of today’s premium story. And here at Tech in Asia, we write about very real things.

The pizza chain has seen tremendous growth since I first saw it on TV – it currently has more than 200 stores in seven markets in Asia, and it opened six new branches in Singapore in December 2023 alone.

Despite GoPizza’s prevalence, however, its rapid expansion raises questions about the sustainability of its business. My colleague Melissa goes deeper in today’s premium story.

Today we look at:

• GoPizza’s tech-powered growth
• A startup that makes coffee without coffee beans
• Other newsy highlights such as Grab’s profitable Q4 2023 and Revolut Singapore’s rising revenue

Premium summary

Pizza party

Image credit: Timmy Loen

GoPizza, which was founded by Jay Lim in 2016, started out as a food truck in South Korea. It serves rectangular pizzas that are the “perfect size” for an individual portion, which developed to meet a rising demand for single-person pizza servings.

Now, it has over 200 stores in seven Asian markets. The firm has raised US$50 million from investors to date. Among its backers are some of South Korea’s biggest conglomerates.

Let’s take a closer look at the company.

No beans? No problem

Quick bytes