Mowgli Street Food, the Liverpool-based Indian concept, has confirmed it has secured £3.45m of new funding from private equity group Foresight Group to roll out further restaurants across the UK.
As previously flagged up by MCA, Karen Jones, co-founder of Café Rouge and current chairman of Hawksmoor, has become chairman of the three-strong, Nisha Katona-led group.
At the same time, Matthew Peck, former head of finance at Byron, has been confirmed as finance director for the £6m-turnover group, which currently operates two restaurants in Liverpool and one in Manchester.
It has further openings lined up in Trinity Leeds and Birmingham for later this year.
The investment from private equity firm Foresight Group is the sixth from the Foresight Regional Investment Fund. It is thought to have beaten off interest in the business from the Business Growth Fund.
MCA revealed in December that Mowgli, which is the brainchild of barrister turned restaurateur and food writer Katona, had appointed advisers Grant Thornton to review its options with the objective of securing new investment to fund its next stage of growth.
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.”
Former McDonald’s development director Peter Richards was an early investor in the business.
RSM and Grant Thornton advised the company while Addleshaw Godddard advised Foresight and O’Connors advised Katona.
