Fabindia MD pumps Rs. 3Cr into Wow! Momo

Fabindia Managing Director William Bissell announced an investment of Rs. 3 crores as a minority stake into home-grown Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) chain, Wow! Momo.

With the current investment, Wow! Momo is now valued at approximately Rs. 300 crores.

Furthermore, William will join the QSR chain's advisory board to spur the retail momo chain along with their mentors Sanjeev Bhikchandani, founder of Naukri.com, Ashvin Chadha, co-founder of Anicut Capital and Padma Shri winner Saurabh Srivastava who is also the founder of The Indian Angel Network (IAN) and NASSCOM.

After empowering rural artisans by bringing their products into the mainstream market through Fabindia, William has also turned into an angel and strategic investor over the years and has made several investments in his personal capacity, with Wow! Momo being his latest.

"Sagar and his colleagues at Wow Momo have in a very short time created an exciting, well priced, profitable new concept in fast food. Their entrepreneurship, innovation and hard work have built Wow Momo into a brand that the New India loves. I'm excited to be an investor and advisor on their journey," he said.

The investment from the Fabindia MD follows an equity funding of Rs. 10 crores in 2015 from India Angel Network (IAN) lead by Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Saurabh Shristava and Ashvin Chadha (co-founder Anicut Capital) at a Rs. 100 crore valuation. Wow! Momo doubled their angel investors' money in 18 months and provided a partial exit to the IAN at an IRR of over 50 percent in their series B round of equity funding last year in June at a Rs.230 crore valuation.

In the last fiscal, the company opened 65 new stores, taking the total number of outlets to 168 nationally. The company revenue grew from Rs.49 crores to Rs.75 crores with an estimated EBITDA of around 9 percent and a SSSG of over 13 percent.

In the current year, the company aims to expand footprint into some new markets, and inaugurate around 100 new Wow! Momo stores.

Some of the prominent names backing the QSR chain in their personal capacity apart from those mentioned above are Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman of Hero Enterprises, Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys, Arvind Singhal, Chairman of Technopack and Raman Roy, current Chairman of Nasscom.