Wow! Momo Raises INR 45 Cr Debt Funding From Anicut Capital The food chain expects to recover 75-80 per cent of pre-COVID numbers this month while targeting 400,000 online orders
By Debarghya Sil •
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Popular momo chain Wow! Momo, owned by Wow! Momo Foods, on Tuesday announced it has raised INR 45 crores debt funding from Anicut Capital. The company claims that while other restaurant chains were forced to file for bankruptcy because of the lockdown, they continued to expand. The food company during the lockdown launched a new business vertical and opened several outlets.
The company during the initial stages of the lockdown faced a massive hit. In April, the company's monthly business dropped to 10 per cent compared to what it did in February. However, the company was fast on its recovery track. It witnessed 65 per cent of its topline in September. The delivery business of the firm has witnessed a 180 per cent rise compared to pre-COVID times. For September, the company saw a demand for 300,000 online orders.
The food chain expects to recover 75-80 per cent of pre-COVID numbers this month while targeting 400,000 online orders.
Commenting on the development, Sagar Daryani, chief executive officer and co-founder at Wow! Momo Foods, commented, "Ours has been a story of agility and adaptability. These crucial times may have brought our business down initially but we always found new ways and undertook initiatives which helped us stay afloat. We have been more robust than ever with a change in business models, newer collaborations with Café Coffee Day to open shop-in-shop formats. Setting up new business verticals and a total of 31 new points of sale opening in the past six months. We have also taken a conscious call to shut down over 30 non-performing outlets nationally and the complete focus is to get back to profitability at the earliest as was the scenario in pre-COVID times."
The company has been supported by the Indian Angel Network and Light House Funds in the past. Last year the company was valued at over INR 860 crore by US-based Tiger Global with an infusion of INR 120 crore directly into the business and an additional INR 60 crore as a secondary partial exit to members of the Indian Angel Network.
Wow! Momo currently has over 357 stores across Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune. Of these, 60 stores are shut and are yet to open.
