I Love Poke

What I Love Poke does

I Love Poke is a privately held Italian fast-casual restaurant company specializing in poke bowls, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Milan. The company operates a multi-location physical retail model serving individual consumers (B2C) in the Italian food-service market, with headcount in the 501-1,000 employee range, indicative of a multi-unit operating footprint rather than a single-site boutique concept. Its core product offering centers on poke — a Hawaiian-origin raw-fish-and-rice dish — packaged within a fast-casual service format that emphasizes quick service and customization.

The business operates as a for-profit, private company that monetizes through direct in-store consumer transactions at its restaurant locations; no specific pricing, menu breadth, or technology platform architecture is disclosed in the available source material. The company is led by Chief Executive Officer Andrea Scotti, with Michael Nazir Lewis identified as founder. In April 2021, the company completed a funding round of approximately $16.83M, with investors and the lead investor undisclosed in the source data, providing capital consistent with multi-unit rollout rather than single-site operations.

The available source material is limited: the company's own website returned only a CAPTCHA/verification page during data collection, and third-party enrichment did not yield disclosed financials, customer counts, app/digital infrastructure, partnerships, or geographic data beyond Italy. As a result, the depth of this description is constrained to firmographic, leadership, and capital-raising signals; operational, technological, and commercial detail beyond the restaurant-chain model is not supported by the input data.

Name

I Love Poke

Website

https://ilovepoke.it

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

I Love Poke is an Italian fast-casual restaurant chain founded in 2017 in Milan, serving poke bowls to individual consumers across a multi-location footprint of 501-1,000 employees.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Milan

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Core offering

I Love Poke is a fast-food restaurant chain that serves Hawaiian-style poke bowls to individual consumers. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Milan, Italy, the company operates a network of casual quick-service locations focused on customizable, healthy bowl-based meals.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Poke Bowls

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Poke House: Direct competitor operating poke bowl restaurants in Italy with a similar fast-casual format. Most relevant peer given shared market, geography (Italy), product offering (poke bowls), and target demographic. Backed by Sodexo, it represents the dominant scaled poke operator in the same geography.
• Hana Group (Pokawa): European poke and Asian-inspired fast-casual chain with significant presence across France and continental Europe. Direct peer operating poke bowls in a similar limited-service format targeting health-conscious urban consumers.
• Poké by Tribù: Italian poke bowl restaurant chain directly competing with I Love Poke in the same Italian market with a similar fast-casual bowl assembly model.
• Tossed: UK-based healthy fast-casual chain specializing in customizable salads, wraps, and bowls. Comparable format and customer base though primarily UK-focused rather than Italian.
• J Poke: Italian poke restaurant chain operating with a similar fast-casual poke bowl format and customer demographic. Direct competitor in the Italian poke restaurant category.

Broad incumbents

• CAVA Group: US-listed Mediterranean-inspired fast-casual restaurant chain with customizable bowls. Comparable business model (limited-service, healthy bowls, premium positioning) and category adjacency though focused on Mediterranean rather than poke specifically.
• Leon Restaurants: UK-based fast-casual healthy restaurant chain serving a similar health-conscious urban consumer with bowls and grab-and-go options. Comparable in category, format, and customer demographic, though broader menu and primarily UK-focused.
• Sweetgreen: US-listed fast-casual healthy bowl/salad chain serving the same health-conscious urban consumer with a similar customizable bowl concept. Broadly comparable in category and brand positioning, though operating at much greater scale and primarily in North America.

Emerging players

• Olo Poke: Italian poke restaurant chain operating in the same market with a similar limited-service poke bowl concept. Emerging regional player with overlapping offering and target customer.

Regional players

• Mama Eat: Italian fast-casual restaurant chain serving healthy bowls, poke, and Asian-inspired dishes in a comparable format. Regional player overlapping in the same Italian market with similar customer segment.

Market position

Strengths3 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights4 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about I Love Poke