Indian street food brand wins private equity backing

Mowgli Street Food has won £3.45m of private equity funding to roll out its restaurants across the UK.

Liverpool-headquartered Mowgli is a chain of authentic Indian street food restaurants, with two sites in Liverpool and one in Manchester.

Nisha Katona founded the company three years ago after leaving a career as a successful barrister to pursue her passion for authentic Indian food.

She says the modern focus on healthy, light, flavoursome dishes differentiates it from traditional Indian restaurants, as does its provision of an extensive gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan offering using recipes passed down from her family.

The £6m turnover company currently employs 120 staff but its plans to roll out more sites – in Birmingham in September and Leeds in October/November – will see those numbers swell considerably.

The investment from private equity firm Foresight Group is the sixth from the Foresight Regional Investment Fund.

As part of the investment, Matthew Peck, former head of finance at private equity backed Byron Hamburgers, has been appointed as finance director. Peck is expected to bring a thorough and detailed approach to modelling and evaluating sites.

Karen Jones, the founded Café Rouge and current chairman of Hawksmoor, has been appointed as chairman.

Katona said: “I feel passionately about offering healthy, authentic Indian Street food to the market. Foresight’s expertise in growing businesses, alongside our recently appointed new recruits, will allow us to expand into new geographies without compromising the quality of our offering.”

Claire Alvarez, senior investment manager for Foresight, said: “Our investment into the Mowgli Street Food chain is tremendously exciting; the business is illustrative of the continuous innovation and entrepreneurial culture that is prevalent in the North West.

“The company is full of potential and we look forward to supporting Nisha in realising her vision for Mowgli Street Food to become the leading voice for Indian Street Food across the UK.

“The deal is the first in a series of investments we are looking at in the consumer and leisure sector this year and has added strongly to the portfolio diversity of the Foresight Regional Investment Fund.”

RSM and Grant Thornton advised the company while Addleshaw Godddard advised Foresight and O’Connors advised Katona.