The Story
How would you like to hear a story of the rise to fame of fresh steaming momos! And if such an enticing delicacy can be turned into a business idea and then made into a huge success, then that’s a story worth narrating, isn’t it? When its QSR, there is one brand topping the list for story-telling. Wow! Momo.
Sagar Daryani and Binod Homagai, two Xaverian classmates and now mega names in the entrepreneurship dashboard, started Wow Momo in 2008 with a 6’ by 6’ kiosk in Springdale Spencer. From a ₹ 30,000 company, today Wow Momo is worth a ₹ 860 Crores Food Company. Likewise, their first kitchen was a 200 square foot room with two part-time chefs and a single table. Sounds like the script from a movie, but yes, real heroes do make big dreams come true!
The brand journey of Wow! Momo from a humble kiosk to a Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) was all made possible in less than 12 years. From a budget of ₹ 30,000 they generated a revenue of a whopping estimated ₹ 450 crores in 2023. And that’s worth a case to take on, we thought!
The Idea
Momos united the now-famous duo. Binod hailed from the original land of momos, Nepal, while Sagar’s taste of momos was through vendors outside his school. The thought of introducing a variety of momos was what kick-started Wow! Momo.
The Start
While Daryani looked after brand expansion, marketing and retail operations, Homagai focused more on production and quality control. At the start, Sagar and Binod, wearing a Wow! Momo tee shirt, would approach every Spencer customer to sample their momos. Starting with Spencer’s Retail in Gachtala Tollygunge in South Kolkata and Big Bazaar hypermarkets in Kolkata, Wow! Momo went on to open outlets in malls and tech parks.
The initial cost of Momo was ₹ 40 per plate. Wow! Momo’s first day sales was approximately ₹ 2200 and at the end of the month, this went upto ₹ 53,000.
The Growth
Starting from their home city, Kolkata, the duo went on to Noida, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Chennai, Lucknow, Delhi, Bengaluru, Cuttack, Puri, Kochi, Bhubaneswar, and Kanpur. From rental outlets, their first independent outlet was opened in 2010 at Sector V in Salt Lake, Kolkata, all of 1200 sq. ft and with an investment of ₹14 Lacs.
Wow! Momo’s first seed funding was of $100 million led by the Indian Angel Network. Another investment happened in 2017 when they raised $440 million led by Lighthouse Funds. Since then, there has been no looking back for Wow! Momo.
Click here to see Wow! Momo Business Model
Today, Wow! Momo is present across over 300 outlets in 17 cities in India with a range of momo varieties and accompanying sauces. And from 2 part-time chefs, they now have 900 people managing the storefronts and over 700 people employed in backend productions.
The Brand Story
Sagar and Binod tapped into the “foodie” and “food centricity” of Kolkata food lovers. Can there be a quicker path to success! The Wow! to the Momo was the very intent behind the brand name. The duo wanted to bring in the wow factor to the otherwise simple momo. In the process, they introduced varieties, innovative marketing ideas and yes, some catchy one-liners!
“Constant bhook ka instant solution”, “Peri peri good” are but a few innovative ways to bring the “Making food fun” concept alive. Today momo appeals to all sections of people, regardless of age and region, with a skew being Gen-Z and the young Gen-Y. And a large thanks for this goes to Wow! Momo for spreading the goodness from Nepal and Bhutan across India!
The effort lay in being innovative. While momos came in steamed, fried and pan-fried varieties, it took tremendous innovation and creativity to put on the table not just twelve different flavours of momos, but other dishes related to momos too. Some worthy of mention are Cheese Momo, Augratin, Sizzler, Butter Masala Momo, Darjeeling Momo and even Chocolate Momo! Innovation took the form of dishes like Moburg, a lip-smacking combo of momos and burger!
(Visit Wow! Momo Website)
Wow! Momo’s competition is largely street vendors and other small shops selling momos. And Wow! Momo’s differentiating factor over them is their hygiene, quality and a variety of flavours.
Innovative Marketing
Wow! Momo was introduced on wheels in Metros stations and further expanded to different happening areas like the open area of malls and corporate tech parks. Their Food Bus or Truck was launched in an amusement park, Nicco Park, in Kolkata. Similar formats were introduced in Bangalore Tech parks. At airports since smoke emission isn’t allowed, Wow! Momo came up with the Mango Momo dessert, a combo of Alphonso Mango pulp, used as momo stuffing with Mango syrup as an add-on flavour.
Reference Link (the above paragraph taken from this link)
The Expansion
When Wow! Momo was already a roaring success, Wow! China was launched. And this time, the duo capitalised on the Chindian love of Indians. Chindian, you know, is the mouth-watering Indian version of Chinese cuisine. And hence why not make the most of Chindian? Aptly named. Wow! China, Desi Chinese.
Future
The future of at-home snacking is definitely on the rise, largely owing to the pandemic. Wow! Momo aims to further delve into this growing trend and hence are focusing on ready -to-eat food, frozen food and bite-sized snacks. Partnerships with Big Basket, Modern Bazaar have ensured that they reach out to more cities and more consumers in large stores. Further, as says Sagar, ““We want to own the entire steamed foods category, including idlis.”
Wow! Momo has been a story of determination to succeed, perseverance, excellent innovative marketing strategies and perhaps most importantly, figuring out that one major emotion – that of love of fast food – and cashing in on this profitably.
