US man moved to Bengaluru to open restaurant, made Rs 196 crore in 2024: 'I love India'

Since 2012, Bert Mueller has continued to open up California Burrito stores in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Delhi. (Image credit: Bert Mueller/Instagram)

Bert Mueller was 22 when he moved to Bengaluru from the US and opened his first restaurant in 2012, now the chain has 103 stores across the country and raked in Rs 196 crore in revenue last year. Mueller has since made India his home and has no plans of returning to the US.

“I don’t have an exit date planned in my mind. I love India. India feels like home to me and being home, you don’t think so much about leaving," he told CNBC Make It.

Mueller's love affair with India began when he visited the country in 2010 on a study abroad trip. He was put up with a host family in Jaipur, and when one of his fellow students offered some of their Mexican food to the family, Mueller was surprised to see them enjoy the food. He too had offered the family some of the food he had brought from the US, but they did not seem to like it. The incident gave birth to the entrepreneurial bug in him.

“Something clicked in my head that maybe this was something I could do — I could bring Mexican-inspired cuisine to India,” he said.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by California Burrito (@californiaburrito_in)

Mueller finished his degree, raised $250,000 (about Rs 2 crore in current forex rate) from friends and family, moved to Bengaluru to open California Burrito, a fast-casual Southern California-style burrito restaurant. He said he chose Bengaluru as the first location because being an IT hub meant that many residents had traveled to the US and had likely tried Mexican or similar food.

The eatery earned about $500,000 (about Rs 4 crore) in its first year, CNBC Make It reported. The money was enough for Mueller to open more stores in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Delhi.

Speaking about some of the hardships he faced in India, Mueller said, “The biggest challenge was that the person we had hired at the beginning to run our entire operation and help us out was a very crooked individual."

The man, his former area manager, had cheated them and had plans of replicating California Burrito. Later, he did open a similar eatery, which failed.

Despite the obstacles, Mueller is undeterred in growing his business. Currently, he is working on the company growing its own ingredients.