New-Delhi based food & beverage company Azure Hospitality, which was established in 2009, is investing ₹30 crore to open 15 new restaurants primarily in Indian metros and in the UK over the next 12-15 months.

The Goldman Sachs-backed company, which has 15 operational Mamagoto restaurants across the major metros including Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata, plans to open four new ones. It will expand its brand ‘Dhaba by Claridges’ from five restaurants in Delhi, Hyderabad, Gurgaon and Chennai to five new metro cities and introduce a non-restaurant concept called Sly Granny which will serve as a community house, that sells a variety of experiences from book readings, philosophy clubs to private screenings and speak-easy bars. The first Sly Granny will be launched in Bengaluru next month, followed by five more Sly brand of restaurants with different theme stories in other metro cities.

“We plan to take Mamagoto and Dhaba by Claridges to university towns like Cardiff and Manchester in the UK, where cuisine options are limited and there is a significant Indian population. We will open 15 new restaurants at an investment of ₹30 crore by March 2018,” co-Founder and Director of Azure Hospitality Rahul Khanna told BusinessLine .

Pointing out that Azure Hospitality was the first to introduce a pan-Asian café format – Mamagoto, seven years ago, which serves customers everything on the menu from 11 a.m. to 11p.m., he said, after buying 3 ‘Dhaba by Claridges’ restaurants in Delhi and Gurgaon from The Claridges hotel last August, where wholesome and rich dhaba food is served, a side menu with lighter, low calorie food options for the health-conscious customers has also been introduced.

Dhaba by Claridges, set up at a cost of ₹2.5 crore will open in Bengaluru next week followed by Sly Granny early next month at a cost of ₹3.5 crore.

Kabir Suri, co-founder and Director, Azure Hospitality, said the company has grown its revenue 50 per cent year-on-year over the last five years, has a nationwide workforce of 1,800 talented people and has achieved a revenue run rate of ₹160 crore. “We are working toward taking the company public when we reach a certain scale,” he said.

Azure Hospitality, which also owns and operates F&B brands such as Mamapaati, Rollmall and Speedy Chow, raised $10 million funding from Goldman Sachs in July 2015 and received $5 million from Max Ventures in exchange for a minority stake in May 2016. Founders, Kabir Suri and Rahul Khanna hold over 50 per cent stake in Azure Hospitality, Goldman Sachs holds 35 per cent stake and Max Ventures holds a 11.2 per cent stake.

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