Who does not love a plate of hot steamed momos but well not everybody can make a business out of it!
Keen on building their own brand Binod Homagai and Sagar Daryani started their fast food restaurant chain “Wow! Momo” in 2008 which is known to serve delicious momos to its customers.
How the Idea came in?
Inspired and encouraged by seeing an aunty selling momos near their school, Sagar convinced Binod to play around the concept instead of going for the cliche popular dishes like burger and pizza. That’s exactly how the idea of Wow! Momo came in.
Wow! Momo initially started with steamed momos before coming up with several other varieties like chicken and cheese, corn and cheese, schezwan among others.
How Did They Start?
To start their first outlet, Sagar and Binod approached the supermarket chain Spencers to set up a stall. In the earlier days, Sagar would wear a Wow!Momo T-shirt and approach every person entering the store, and ask them to sample the momos.
Initially for their samples they divided one momo into three pieces as they believed in conquering the audience with their taste.
The duo borrowed the sum of Rs. 30,000 from their parents as their initial capital and also managed to hire a part time chef Ramji KC for Rs. 3,000 who was working at a small restaurant in the city.
On the first day, the team’s sales were Rs 2200, and by the end of the month, had touched Rs 53,000. Today, Chef Ramji works full-time for Wow!Momo, and is the head chef with a salary of Rs 1.5 lakh a month.
Food Business in India
The food business is slowly picking up in India, and while investors believe the business is operationally intensive, some tested and proven models continue to thrive and grow.
Wow!Momo has also successfully raised Series B funding of Rs 44 crore led by Lighthouse Funds and IAN at a valuation of Rs 230 crore. The company is also looking at an IPO in the next six to seven years. Currently, it aims to open over 1,000 stores across the country.
