Wow! Momo is an Indian chain of

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

restaurants headquartered in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. The chain specializes in momos, momo-filled burgers (MoBurgs) and momo-based desserts. It was established in 2008 by St. Xavier's College alumni Sagar Daryani and Binod Homagai. As of December 2021, there are around 425 outlets across 19 cities in India. Wow! Momo Foods Pvt. Ltd. operates 3 Brands; Wow! Momo, Wow! China and Wow! Chicken which was launched in December 2021. The company aims to be an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

in a few years with plans to gain a global foothold, i.e., they want to compete with the likes of

Domino's Domino's Pizza, Inc., trading as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware General Corporation Law, Delaware domiciled and headquartered at the Domino ...

and

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

. Wow Momo Foods in 2021 emerged as the most valued homegrown QSR brand in India with a valuation of ₹1,225 crores. The Company has grown its foothold completely with company operated outlets; it does not have any franchise plans as of now. As per ''Fintrackr''’s estimates, Wow! Momo in 2022 raised fresh investment in Series D round at a valuation of $270 million or Rs 2,130 crore, post allotment. The company’s valuation grew more than 60% in the past year as it was valued at $165-170 million in Series C round.

History

The founders of Wow! Momo, Sagar Jagdish Daryani and Binod Kumar Homagai, first met each other at St. Xavier's College during their undergrad. With an initial amount of ₹30,000, they started the venture in 2008 at the age of 21. Wow! Momo began as a 6' by 6' kiosk in a Spencer's, which was one of their initial stores (the other one being a kiosk inside a

Big Bazaar Big Bazaar was an Indian retail chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. The retail chain was founded by Kishore Biyani under his parent organisation Future Group, which is known for having a significant prominen ...

on rent for 18% of revenue share per month). While Daryani looked after brand expansion, marketing and retail operations, Homagai focused more on production and quality control. They were later joined by another St. Xavier's alumnus and friend Shah Miftaur Rahman, who took the responsibility of cost control and finance and Muralikrishnan joined as the fourth Co-founder in 2018. A friend and another St. Xavier's alumnus, to take charge of marketing, brand building and growth hacking. Wow! Momo, in June 2017, managed to raise ₹44 crore from Lighthouse funds and through investments by Indian Angel Network. A year later, Fabindia's managing director, William Bissell, invested ₹3

crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...

(US$440,000) in the company, which helped Wow! Momo reach a valuation of ₹300

(US$45 million). And in September 2019, after an investment by

Tiger Global Management Tiger Global Management, LLC (often referred to as Tiger Global and formerly known as Tiger Technology) is an American investment firm. It mainly focuses on Internet, software, consumer, and financial technology industries. Background and histo ...

of ₹130

(US$23 million), the valuation of the company crossed ₹860 crore (US$120 million), which led to the opening of more outlets in commercial locations like malls and tech parks. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Wow! Momo entered into a strategic partnership with

Café Coffee Day Café Coffee Day (CCD) is an Indian multinational chain of coffeehouses headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It is a subsidiary of Coffee Day Enterprises Limited. Internationally, CCDs are present in Austria, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Nepa ...

, in which they decided to share outlet space along with costs and revenue.

Awards and recognition

* Best Dim-sum product chain – Indian Restaurant Congress Award 2016 * Best Unique Retail Concept Award – Images Retail Award 2017 * Coca-Cola Golden Spoon Award – Best Quick Service Restaurant in Indian origin 2018 * Coca-Cola Golden Spoon Award – Best Innovation in Store Design 2018

References

{{Reflist Restaurants established in 2008 Fast-food chains of India Fast-food franchises Indian brands Brand name snack foods Companies based in Kolkata 2008 establishments in West Bengal Indian companies established in 2008