WOW! MOMO India’s fastest growing fast-food chain started by two classmates back in Kolkata in 2008 with a mere investment of only RS 30000 is now valued over RS 1200 crores. Both the founders of Wow! Momo, Sagar Jagdish Daryani and Binod Kumar Homagai, met each other in their undergrad days while studying in St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. They started selling steam momos in a small 6 by 6 kiosks in Springdale Spencer in Kolkata, West Bengal.
Wow Momo Success Story
Idea behind this Brand
In the school days of Sagar Jagdish Daryan, he noticed an aunty would come to sell momos and each time they got sold out then in the final year of the undergrad when Sagar Jagdish Daryani and Binod Kumar Homagai they used to study together at nights and sometimes they’d make Maggi or pasta to munch on. One day when Binod made momos in place of Maggi he’d remember the momo aunty of his school and got the idea of building a brand based on momos and shared with Binod. They started the brand with RS 30000 investment and a lot of “JUGAD”.
Initial Days
In the initial days Sagar Daryani and Binod would go to the customers whoever entered the spencer’s to give samples of their product with a WOW! Momo t-shirt on.
According to Sagar Daryan the first kitchen setup was done in a 200 sq. ft. space with only one table and one par time chef, giving him only RS 3000 that time, he is still associated with the brand to this day and earning a handsome salary of more than Rs 150000.
From the very beginning they had their roles divided to exclude any confusions while Homagai handled quality control and production, Daryan would look after the marketing, brand expansion and retail operations.
Outlets across India
WOW! Momo specialists in momos, momo filled burgers which the brand calls MoBurgs and also deserts based on momos, as of today they are expanded to over 20 cities across India having more than 450 outlets. As of now Wow! Momo Foods Pvt. Ltd. operating 3 Brands; Wow! Momo, Wow! China and Wow! Chicken which just launched in December 2021. Now the aim of the company is to be an IPO to make its global presence and compete fast food chains like KFC, Taco bell, Dominos etc.
Investments
From the small kiosk in Spencer WOW! Momo started hitting astonishing figures in sales getting around 7-8 lakhs a month seeing that the management got confidence over them and offered them a space in south city mall, Kolkata they saved money from 2 outlets for 6 months to open third, saved money from 3 outlets to open the fourth outlet. Customers were the biggest investor said Sagar Daryani, co-founder of WOW! Momo. In June, 2017 They managed to raise a fund of RS 44 crores from Indian Angel Network. A year later William Bissell, MD of Fabindia invested a sum of RS 3 crore in the company to boost the valuation at RS 300 crore and after the investment of RS 110 crore in series C funding round led by Tree Line Investment Management the valuation of WOW! Momo stands at around RS 1200 crore making it the most valued home grown QSR brand.
Hope this Wow Momo success story motivates you!!
