Fastest growing Indian food brand!

Hey there,

From an initial investment of just Rs. 30,000 to now a Rs. 2,400 Crore brand! These guys built an empire by selling one of India's favorite street foods - momos.

We're talking about Wow Momo founders Sagar Daryani and Binod Homagai, who first met each other during their undergrad years. They started the company together in 2008 at the young age of 21.

From operating a small 6x6 feet kiosk inside Spencer's hypermarket to now having over 300+ outlets spread across 17 major Indian cities, Wow Momo has grown exponentially over the past decade.

Recently, a Malaysian fund named Khazanah infused Rs. 350 crores into Wow Momo for rapid expansion. But how did Sagar and Binod grow the business from basically nothing to a national sensation?

1/ Leveraging the age-old “Jugaad” to get started:

Sagar Daryani always knew he wanted to start a food business rather than doing a job. When a new Spencer hypermarket opened right in front of his family's garment shop, he saw it as the perfect chance to take action.

Sagar approached the store manager claiming he already ran an existing momo business and could provide samples if given a chance. The next day Sagar convinced a momo vendor to make a sample batch for him. Armed with these convincing samples, he got the kiosk tender.

2/ Steady expansion focused on sustainable growth:

After running one successful kiosk outlet, Sagar realized he needed to grow slowly and focus on operational excellence rather than rapid expansion. He opened a larger kiosk at another Spencer's location, taking time to master daily operations.

Once the model was proven in Kolkata malls, he steadily expanded into other cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Delhi NCR, and more.

3/ Bootstrapping built vital financial discipline:

In the late 2000s, starting a new food outlet typically required Rs. 30-50 lakhs upfront for real estate, equipment, inventory, and staffing. But by bootstrapping on just Rs. 30,000 initially, Wow Momo was forced to rely on its revenues rather than external funding.

This constraint meant no budget for advertising. Instead, the founders did grassroots marketing themselves, personally handing out free momos to customers right in malls while wearing Wow Momo t-shirts.

4/ Scalable model attracted huge investors:

Leveraging mall kiosks meant lower real estate costs. And, momos’ positioning as an affordable fast food with a broad appeal made the concept highly scalable.

This highly scalable model coupled with India's rapidly rising appetite for grab-and-go food convinced investors like Sanjeev Bikchandani to invest. Later, big names like Tiger Global financed further expansion.

But, as more and more people get serious about their health and startups like cult. fit and HealthifyMe become mainstream with their complementary healthy food businesses, will that slow down the interest in these fast food chains?

Or will Wow Momo also introduce a healthy food menu sometime soon to adapt and expand its offerings? Only time will tell!

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Cheers,
The community team at buildd