WOW Momo gears up to become India’s McDonald

From a one-outlet brand to a 50-outlet pan-India chain, “Wow! Momo” certainly seems to be making it big in the restaurant brand space. Started by two college buddies even before coming out of the college, ‘WOW Momo’ now has 50 outlets across Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Bangalore, Kochi, Coimbatore and in NCR. The restaurant chain, specialising in a wide range ofmomo, Nepalese dumpling, Tibetian dumpling and a host of experimental and innovative palates, has already drawn up plans to become a 100 outlet chain over the next couple of years. So far all the outlets are company owned and all cities have a base kitchen with a trained Chef in Nepalese and Tibetian cuisines, said Binod Kumar Homagai, Co-founder, WOW Momo Foods Pvt Ltd.

The 6 year old company, which has been valued at Rs 100 crore by The Indian Angel Network, and also received a Rs 10 crore funding by the angel investor with Sanjeev Bhikchandani, founder of Naukri.com (Info Edge) being one of their lead Investors, diluting 10 per cent stakes. “The funds is being utilized in pan India expansion and brand building. Our plan is to have at least 100 outlets in the next two years. Once that is done we will go for next round of expansion and possibly next round of funding,” said Homagai.

The company is open to both company-owned outlets and franchise models and is also open to both sit-down restaurants and takeaway formats, depending on the location and size of the outlet. It has also started experimenting with home delivery on bikes, which according to Homagai, helps in brand building also.

Homagai, who floated this restaurant chain with his classmate from Kolkata’s St Xavier’s College–Sagar Jagdish Daryani, now said, “We want to become India’s Mc Donalds albeit with a different offering.”

“We have literally played with momos to have grown rapidly to become the country’s largest momo chain in terms of volumes, turnovers and Innovations. Our menu caters to more than 30 different flavors of momos available in steamed, fried & pan fried formats. We have also smartly innovated and invented to create Sizzler Momos, Mogurg (Momo Burgers), Momo Chats etc and to top it all, even a dessert called Chocolate momo. We have just introduced Tandoor Momos also. And it is our innovative and experimental menu that has helped us adding that ‘wow’ factor to our brand and building a brand, which stands out,” said Homagai.