Franchise Opportunities in India: Which Famous Brands You Can Actually Buy

Most of the famous franchise opportunities in India that people search for are not open to individual investors. Domino's, KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Burger King, Subway and Starbucks are each run in India by one master franchisee or joint venture that owns and operates the stores itself. The real opportunities sit elsewhere: in brands that publish a price and sign up individual franchisees, such as Kidzee, EuroKids, Chai Sutta Bar, Baskin Robbins, FirstCry and Lakmē Salon. We checked each brand below against its own franchise page, filings or official notices. The short answer: before you compare costs, find out who holds the Indian rights and whether that company sub-franchises at all.

Seven big names you cannot buy as an individual

The table shows who controls each brand in India and what the official record says.

Brand	Who holds the India rights	What the official record says
Domino's	Jubilant FoodWorks	"Sole and exclusive rights to own and operate" Domino's in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal
KFC	Devyani International and Sapphire Foods	Yum Restaurants India's caution notice says no KFC franchise is offered to the general public
Pizza Hut	Devyani International and Sapphire Foods	Sapphire states it has no right to offer sub-franchises
McDonald's	Westlife Foodworld (West and South); Connaught Plaza Restaurants (North and East)	Westlife's subsidiary ran 397 restaurants in 64 cities itself as of 31 March 2024
Burger King	Restaurant Brands Asia	Only 5 of 581 Indian restaurants were sub-franchised at 31 March 2026 (FY26 annual report)
Subway	Culinary Brands India	Exclusive master franchise; no published application or terms
Starbucks	Tata Starbucks, a 50:50 joint venture formed in 2012	Stores are opened and run by the joint venture

None of this is secret. It sits in filings and official notices.

The master franchisee decides, not the global brand

A foreign logo does not automatically mean a closed door. What matters is how the Indian rights holder chooses to grow, and Baskin Robbins shows the other side of that choice. The brand entered India in 1993 through a joint venture with the Graviss Group, which later took full ownership of it for the SAARC region, and Graviss does sign up individual franchisees: its franchise enquiry form lists investment bands of ₹25 lakh+, ₹30 lakh+ and ₹40 lakh+. Compare that with Dunkin'. Jubilant FoodWorks' 2011 agreement allowed it to develop, sub-franchise and operate Dunkin' outlets, yet it was down to 27 outlets by December 2025, lost about ₹19.1 crore on the brand in FY25, and will let the deal lapse on 31 December 2026. In July 2026, Restaurant India reported that Graviss was in early talks to take over Dunkin's India rights, with no deal confirmed. If that happens, whether you could ever own a Dunkin' outlet would depend on Graviss's model, not on Dunkin's. So the first question for any international brand is who holds the rights, and the second is whether that company has ever sub-franchised a single outlet.

Before comparing costs, find out who holds the Indian rights and whether they sub-franchise at all.

Where individual investors can actually buy in, with published figures

These brands state an investment or capital requirement on their own franchise pages, which we re-checked in September 2026.

• Kidzee (preschool): ₹15 to 16 lakh, 2,000 to 3,000 sq ft; 2,500+ centres in 600+ cities.
• EuroKids (preschool): ₹15 to 20 lakh, minimum 1,500 sq ft on the ground or first floor.
• Chai Sutta Bar (tea cafe): ₹22 to 30 lakh in total, franchise-owned and franchise-operated.
• Baskin Robbins (ice cream): bands of ₹25 lakh+, ₹30 lakh+ and ₹40 lakh+.
• FirstCry (kids' retail): available capital of ₹35 to 50 lakh or ₹50 lakh+, from 1,000 sq ft.
• Lakmē Salon: a ₹60 lakh budget and 900 sq ft of owned space.

Two caveats. First, a brand's stated figure is its own number, and it may not cover working capital for the first few months, so ask what is included. Second, Jawed Habib lists five salon formats from 200 sq ft to 1,000+ sq ft but, when we checked this week, showed no rupee figure on its franchise page. We would rather print no number than a guessed one.

The in-between cases worth knowing

Some brands do take franchisees, but only partly or not right now. Lenskart had 306 franchisee-owned stores among 2,137 in India in June 2025, yet its official partner site said in September 2026 that franchise expansion is temporarily on hold. Burger King's five sub-franchised restaurants are a similar story: technically a franchise, practically closed.

Fake offers use the closed brands most

Several of the brands that don't franchise publish warnings about people impersonating them. Jubilant warns that people posing as the company ask for payments against the promise of a Domino's franchise. Subway India names fake domains such as subwayindia.com and says it never asks for deposits. Lenskart warns about look-alike websites. If someone offers you a franchise of a brand in the first table above, treat it as a scam until proven otherwise, and never pay a "registration fee" to secure one.

Questions buyers ask

Can I get a McDonald's or Domino's franchise in India?

No. Both run through master franchisees that operate their own restaurants, and neither publishes a route for individual investors.

What is the lowest real entry point among well-known brands?

Among the brands above, the preschools are lowest: Kidzee states ₹15 to 16 lakh and EuroKids ₹15 to 20 lakh. Budget extra for rent deposits and early running costs.

How do I check if a brand really offers franchises?

Check three things: whether the brand publishes franchise terms, which company holds the India rights, and whether it has issued a caution notice about fake offers. On FranchiseChuno, brands that don't take franchisees carry a clear notice at the top of their listing.