ChrysCapital buys 85% stake in Theobroma, targets expansion in eastern India

Theobroma was founded in 2004 by sisters Kainaz Messman Harchandrai and Tina Messman Wyke.

Private equity major ChrysCapital has acquired an 85 percent stake in Mumbai-based premium bakery chain Theobroma, marking one of the largest transactions in India’s food services sector this year.

The transaction also marks the first buyout in the consumer sector for ChrysCapital, whose strategy typically focuses on backing market-leading, homegrown brands across sectors such as consumer, healthcare, financial services and technology. While the deal terms were not disclosed, sources said that the transaction is valued over Rs 2,000 crore.

Founded in 2004 by sisters Kainaz Messman Harchandrai and Tina Messman Wykes, Theobroma has grown from a single Colaba café into a pan-India western desserts platform, operating over 250 company-owned outlets across 45 cities.

The founding family will retain the remaining 15 percent and continue to be associated with the company, and the current management team led by CEO Rishi Gour will remain at the helm.

In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Rajiv Batra, director and consumer sector lead at ChrysCapital, said that the investment reflects the firm’s long-standing interest in consumer businesses, particularly in the food service segment.

“Theobroma is a solid brand with strong unit economics and significant scalability potential. We’ve been tracking the company for over two years as both investors and customers, and the combination of business resilience, growth prospects and management quality made this an attractive opportunity,” said Batra.

The deal is a completely secondary purchase of shares from existing shareholders—the founding family and private equity firm ICICI Venture—and there will be no primary fund infusion into the company at this time. ChrysCapital will be supported by its limited partners (investors in a PE fund) to finance the buyout.

“Theobroma is profitable, generates cash and has been growing at 25–30 percent annually over the past five years. We don’t foresee the need for fresh capital to fund organic growth,” Batra noted.

Theobroma's 250-plus stores around the country are run on the central kitchen-led model that supports a cluster of outlets in each region. ChrysCapital plans to deepen the brand’s presence in existing markets while expanding into untapped geographies.

“The brand has good density in metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru but the eastern region remains underpenetrated. That’s a big focus area for us. We also plan to enter three to five new cities every year,” Batra said.

The company has been adding 60–70 stores annually, a pace that Batra believes can continue comfortably in the near term. “We’ll calibrate expansion based on demand, but there’s no reason we can’t sustain this momentum,” he added.

In addition to geographic expansion, ChrysCapital will explore new store formats to meet evolving consumer needs, while keeping the brand’s core positioning intact.

Theobroma, known for its brownies, cakes and patisserie offerings, has gradually expanded into savoury items in recent years. Batra said any product or format changes will be decided after working closely with the management over the next few months.

“Our philosophy is to protect the brand ethos. We are in the mass-premium segment, which allows some flexibility to stretch towards premium or value offerings, but not at the cost of quality. We will experiment with formats and pricing, but customer trust in product quality remains non-negotiable,” he said.

So far, Theobroma’s growth has been largely driven by word of mouth publicity. ChrysCapital plans to increase brand visibility over the medium term but will not rush into large marketing spends in the first few months post-acquisition.

“The brand’s halo is bigger than its current footprint. Over the next three to five years, we will invest in building awareness in line with store expansion, but any marketing push will follow clarity on product and format strategy,” Batra said.