Wow! Momo was started by Sagar Daryani and Binod Kumar Homagai in 2008. With a mere investment of Rs. 30,000 from Sagar’s father, they started making momos in the 200sq feet garage at Sagar’s place, they hired a part-time chef who was monthly paid Rs. 3000. Presently, they have around 200 outlets in 13 cities in India. A central kitchen is set up in each city which cooks momos and delivers them to each kiosk. They have over 2000 employees working in the business, and their net worth stands at a fantastic Rs. 860 crores. Isn’t this truly a rag to riches story?
THE JOURNEY
Sagar Daryani and Binod Kumar Homagai, fresh graduates from St. Xavier’s College, hailed from middle-class families. Knowing fully their fragile ability in maths, they decided that they would not prepare for CAT and started looking for options. The duo of classmates got inspired by the lady outside their college who used to sell delicious momos, hence the thought arose, “if pizza and burger places can have outlets, who not momos?”
Thus, both classmates, at the age of 21, started the journey. They approached the supermarket chain Spencer’s intending to set up a stall, Spencer’s got them a 6 by 6 kiosk. Sagar remembers wearing a Wow! Momo shirt and approaching every customer to enter the mart and asking them to sample their momos. Sagar would wake up every day at 5:30 in the morning, going to shop for fresh materials like vegetables, chicken, and stuff in his bicycle, all of that on credit. They made sure all the items were fresh, so they would take the momos in hot cases to spencer’s, also at the time of their return, they would walk while carrying all the empty crates, to save money. They sold momos worth Rs. 2,200 on the first day and at the end of the month, the sales had risen to Rs. 53,000.
Seeing the impressive sales of the food start-up, Spencer’s assigned a kiosk at the biggest outlet of the chain, which was in the biggest mall in Kolkata. The change helped them raise the revenue from Rs. 50000 to Rs. 9 lakhs. This terrific growth in revenues made them hire a team for product research and development. With an investment of Rs. 14 lakhs, the food startup finally opened its independent outlet in Salt Lake, Kolkata in 2010. Later in 2011, they opened up another branch in Phoenix Market City in Bengaluru. Ever since then, they have continued to expand in more than 200 outlets in India.
Wow! Momo was started with only steamed momos, now they have more varieties like pan-fried momos, momo burgers named MoBurg, fried momo, and a lot of various stuffings like chicken, prawn, corn, cheese and so on. They also made meals after being inspired by the pizza and burger chains. They sell desserts as well. They recently released frozen momos and are in talks of collaborating with Big Basket.
INVESTMENTS
Wow! Momo secured a funding of Rs. 100M in 2015 in the seed round, later in 2017, they secured a funding of Rs. 440 million by Lighthouse Funds. Funding of $23 million by Tiger Global Management valued the company at Rs. 860 crores. In October 2020, Wow! Momo raised Rs. 450 million by Anicut Capital.
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