Varuni.Khosla @timesgroup.com
New Delhi: Big Fish Ventures, a Delhi-based restaurant business that runs dining lounges including The Junkyard Cafe, The Vault Café, Garam Dharam and Café OMG, is planning to expand the business from its current seven to 15 restaurants in the next two years across India and the Middle East. In the longer run, the company plans to open 40.
Last year, ET reported that the company would look for venture capital funding but this year, Umang Tewari, who is the majority stakeholder and owner of the company, said it was now raising funds from friends and family for the expansion.
On the company’s agenda next is the launch of a new restaurant concept, “Local” – spread across 14,000 sq. ft. in Connaught Place in Delhi and another Garam Dharam in tier-2 town Murthal by November 2016. The firm is also following suit in Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Amritsar and Dubai by 2018.
Tewari said the company is loo-king to set up two other celebrity concept restaurant like Garam Dharam. Currently no names can be disclosed as the deal is under-way, he said. The next would be a Michelin-starred restaurant con-cept that he will bring to Mumbai. “We are currently only investing organically through friends and family. My partners bring in the sweat equity for my projects but the brands belong to me. For us, it takes 5-6 crore to set up an outlet. Over the next two years, we will have invested s 2250 crore on the restaurants,” he said.
Last year, Big Fish roped in Nishant Singhal, co-founder of startup venture fund YouWeCan Ventures, as a stakeholder in his personal capacity. The Indian restaurant sector will create employment for 5.8 million people and contribute z22, 400 crore by way of taxes to the Indian economy, says Riyaaz Amlani, president of restaurant body NRAI.
