Vikram Bakshi, the former managing director of McDonald’s North and East, has acquired an equity stake in home-grown premium foods start-up Aku’s backed by do-it-yourself (DIY) western-cuisine foods company The Brrgrr Co.

The development comes 10 years after Bakshi exited US fast food chain McDonald’s after a prolonged and bitter legal battle with the company. This is Bakshi’s second coming in the burger business, after McDonald’s.

Confirming the development to ET, Bakshi said the deal is in the form of equity investment. Declining to disclose other details of the deal, he said the brand will be scaled up “to a much larger audience than it already is”.

The Brrgrr Co posted on one of its social media pages that it has raised funds from Bakshi. The Brrgrr Co was co-founded in 2020 by Delhi-based chef Akriti Malhotra, and currently sells hand-crafted fresh buns, patties and sauces, according to information on its website.

“The time is ripe to upgrade the burger culture in India. Their positioning connects with the present demand of millennials and Gen Z,” Bakshi said.

Gourmet western-style foods is a niche but growing space, and the past year has seen scaling up of specialised brands such as Avo Beet and Feta from Nino Burgers, Louis Burger and Speak Burgers.

However, the mass western-style fast foods space saw large quick-service restaurant chains reporting either declining or flat growth in the March quarter, as consumers downtraded to lower ticket sizes and multiple lower-priced boutique brands.