Uncle Peter’s Pancakes Bags Rs 60 Lacs for 3% Equity at Shark Tank Season-3, Targets 350 Outlets by 2025

Pancakes have been very famous in the US and Europe. The joy of biting into freshly baked fluffy pancakes, layered with fruits, maple syrup, or whipped cream is unparalleled. Let’s just say, it offers indulgence like no other. However, the knowledge of pancakes has been limited in India. This is what struck Co-founders Akashdeep Dan and Sundeep Singh at Uncle Peter's Pancakes in 2018. “At that point, only a few pancake brands were there and they were only serving mini pancakes. The other option was to head to high-end cafes and restaurants to enjoy pancakes. This gave us the confidence to go ahead with pancakes,” shared Sundeep Singh who started experimenting at events, tried making sauces, took photos, and asked people whether they’d like to have something like this and after seeing great responses they opened their first outlet in September 2019 in Indiranagar, Bangalore.

Recently, the brand ventured into the Shark Tank India season three by cracking a joint deal of Rs 60 lacs for 3% equity and 3% royalty until Rs 1.2 cr is recouped from three sharks; including Anupam Mittal, Vineeta Singh and Namita Thapar. Excerpts from the interview:

How has been the journey so far?

Over the last five years, the brand has built a solid menu offering at least 200 pancake varieties, besides crepes and waffles. It often changes the menu to surprise its clients, including summer and winter special varieties based on seasonality. Such is its popularity that it sells 5,000 pancakes on average per day, with orders increasing on weekends. From five outlets in 2021, to 40 outlets until April 2023 across 15 cities in India, it has expanded rapidly.

How much money have you put into starting the concept?

We have put around 10 lacs initially to start the business. 

Why franchising? What's the franchise fee per outlet?

Franchising is a method that organizations utilize to distribute their products and services via retail outlets owned by dealers or operators, known as a franchisee. The company that allows the independent third-party operator to sell its products and services using its name and techniques is the franchisor. This method enables big companies to branch out and expand while enabling individuals to run the franchise with a proven formula for success. In many cases a franchise reaches the break-even point faster than an independent business because of the established brand name. 
Our franchise fee is 5 lakhs for 5 years. 

On Fund Raised at Shark Tank India

After investment we have 3 main focus areas to work on:
Operations excellence, although we have started the journey but to excel, we need to work on supply chain and production to strengthen our franchise network. 

Tech enablement inside out, for franchise partners best technology solution and for customers we want to ensure user friendly platforms for ordering with loyalty programs. 

Marketing- Till now we have focused on our product and franchise network but still there is a lot of work on marketing activities so we would like to leverage the investment to reach more customers and increase the awareness about the brand and pancakes.

What's your expansion plan?

Uncle Peter’s Pancakes may now be a leading player in the category but still we have a long way to go. From two of us in 2019, there are more than 150 employees that work with Uncle Peter’s Pancakes across all its locations. We want to establish the brand at 100-plus locations by the end of 2023 and at 350-plus locations by 2025.