Wow! Momo plans ₹300 crore fundraise, eyes overseas expansion ahead of proposed IPO

The company, which operates Wow! Momo, Wow! China and Wow! Chicken, plans to enter Sri Lanka by the end of 2026 through a master franchise partnership with local entity Softlogic Corp. The partners plan to open about 25 outlets in the country over the first three years. Softlogic will fund the outlets and local production, while Wow! Momo will earn fees and royalties and provide operating support, co-founder Sagar J. Daryani told Mint.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the next market under consideration for the restaurant business, through a local partner. The US and China are longer-term targets, with entry being considered by fiscal year 2030 (FY30).

Its packaged-food arm, Wow! Momo FMCG, already sells products in 14 countries. It plans to expand into the US, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand and Canada over the next 12 months, Daryani said.

The FMCG business currently contributes 12% of the company's overall business, generating about ₹10 crore a month, he said. The company expects its share to rise to 20% by the end of the year. FMCG is also more profitable than the restaurant business, Daryani said.

The company expects its international business, combining restaurant operations and FMCG exports, to exceed ₹100-120 crore in revenue in two to three years. FMCG is growing at about 100% annually, albeit on a smaller base, compared with 20-25% growth in the restaurant business.

The proceeds will support new store openings and working capital, as well as the repayment of some debt. The company has previously indicated that it would consider a potential IPO before the end of calendar year 2028.

Wow! Momo reported revenue of about ₹830 crore in FY26, up from ₹630 crore in FY25, according to its latest available data. It currently operates around 860 outlets across its three restaurant brands and expects to end FY27 with about 910 outlets, before accelerating openings in FY28.

The company has raised about ₹625 crore since its inception. Investors include Tiger Global Management and Khazanah, a Malaysian sovereign fund, which invested in 2019 and 2024, respectively. In December, investor Madhusudan Kela put ₹75 crore into a bridge round. Wealth management fund 360 One and the owner of Haldiram also invested in the business in August and September 2025.

Food inflation across the industry has been running at 7-8%, Daryani said, with chicken, cooking oil, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), onions, fuel and packaging all becoming more expensive. Wow! Momo and other industry players have responded by raising menu prices by around 6%.

Delivery platforms have added another cost burden. About half of Wow! Momo's restaurant sales now come through delivery platforms, up from 35-38% a few years ago. Platform commissions, which accounted for around 1% of the company's profit and loss statement before the pandemic, now account for about 10%, Daryani said.

While online ordering has expanded the company's customer base, the higher commissions have made delivery economics harder to manage. Daryani expects commission costs to decline with the emergence of alternatives such as Rapido's Ownly and Swiggy's Toing.

“Our same-store sales growth year to date in H1 March-September was a positive 14%. This is a significant double digit as compared to single-digit of listed peers,” Daryani said.

Listed quick-service restaurant chains also reported improving demand in the first half of FY27, with some recording double-digit same-store sales growth. KFC India, operated by Sapphire Foods, reported growth of 14% in the second quarter, while Westlife Foodworld, which runs McDonald’s restaurants in west and south India, posted 10.1% growth. Burger King India recorded 12.6% growth in the first quarter. By comparison, Domino’s India operator Jubilant FoodWorks reported like-for-like sales growth of 4.1% in the second quarter, while Pizza Hut India posted 5% growth in the same period.

Varuni Khosla

Varuni Khosla is a journalist with Mint, where she covers the consumer economy with a focus on hospitality and tourism, luxury, the business of sports, art, and the alcohol and food and beverage industries. Based in New Delhi, she reports on how brands and cultural sectors grow, shape consumer demand and compete in one of the world’s fastest-evolving markets.Varuni has been a journalist since 2009 and brings more than 17 years of experience reporting on India’s business landscape. She specialises in covering the industries shaping India’s consumption economy, and is widely recognised as a key voice in these areas.Over the years, she has closely tracked the rise of India’s luxury and hospitality sectors, the transformation of advertising and marketing as brands respond to digital platforms and changing audiences, and the economics of sport, from sponsorships and leagues to the expanding commercial ecosystems around teams, athletes and media rights. Her reporting on the business of art explores the growing global market for South Asian art and the role of collectors, galleries and auction houses.Her stories frequently draw on exclusive conversations with founders, executives and industry leaders, combining market data with on-the-ground reporting to offer readers insight into the companies and trends shaping India’s evolving consumption economy.