Founder Thesis Utham Gowda on Building a $1B ARR Seafood Platform Across 3 Oceans
Jan 20, 2026
Utham Gowda, the founder and Group CEO of Captain Fresh, shares his dramatic journey from a $500 million valuation to building a global seafood powerhouse. He reveals the bold decisions behind an aggressive M&A strategy that led to acquiring over $120 million in companies without debt. Utham discusses the importance of radical honesty in business, the shift from a domestic to a global focus, and how Captain Fresh tripled its profitability. He also emphasizes the vast opportunities in the seafood industry, advocating for a mission-driven approach for aspiring founders.
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Why Seafood Was The Chosen TAM
- Seafood scored high on TAM, profitability history, and ROCE, making it an attractive sector to build a platform in.
- Utham prioritized industries that were large, under-capitalized, and had consistent returns over a decade.
From Banker To Seafood Operator
- Utham moved from investment banking to join Nekanti to help with an IPO and learned operations firsthand.
- That hands-on stint became his tutorial in fisheries and seeded Captain Fresh's founding idea.
Don't Build India-Focused B2C Seafood
- Avoid building B2C in India for seafood because demand is highly spiky and infrastructure idle time is large.
- Focus on B2B/global plays where frequency and retail real estate make a supply-chain business scalable.