Food platform Sessions has acquired Little Bao Boy, the Leeds bao bun brand that has grown 431% year on year and delivered more than 340,000 orders. Terms were not disclosed, but founder James Ooi retains a minority holding in the brand.
Sessions, founded by former Deliveroo executive Dan Warne, operates as a growth platform for food brands rather than a restaurant group. It licenses and scales concepts across a network of kitchens and venues, taking on the operational and capital burden that would otherwise sit with individual founders.
Little Bao Boy was started by James Ooi in 2016 out of a home kitchen in Leeds, selling bao buns before adding loaded fries, flat rice noodles and rice bowls. It joined the Sessions network in 2021, beginning with pop-ups at London sites including The Sun & 13 Cantons and The Roundhouse, and has since run a delivery-first model through Sessions' kitchen estate.
The acquisition, announced on 21 August, converts that five-year commercial partnership into ownership. Deal value was not disclosed and neither party has published multiples or an enterprise value.
The structure is the interesting part. Ooi is not exiting outright: he keeps a minority stake and stays involved in creative and culinary development, which leaves him exposed to the upside of any subsequent scaling or resale rather than crystallising his position in full at today's valuation.
"James Ooi will maintain a minority holding to support creative and culinary development and share in future upside growth," said Dan Warne, founder of Sessions.
Sessions has raised across several rounds. It closed a $10m Series A in January 2022, followed by £3.25m from Virgin Money in autumn 2023 and a £3m round from existing investor Guinness Ventures in April 2024, a raise the company said doubled its Series A valuation. It reported £55m of sales in under three years of trading and runs brands including SoBe Burger and Kenny Tutt's Patty Guy alongside a food hall on Brighton seafront.
Management plans to take Little Bao Boy national, build a quick-service restaurant franchise proposition and pursue international expansion. Sessions has also signalled it is open to buying further brands, which would make this the first of a series rather than a one-off.
"The last five years have been hugely exciting for us, taking us from Leeds to a national franchise," said Ooi.
For UK food founders, the deal sketches an exit route that sits between a trade sale and a licensing agreement: sell control to a platform, retain equity, and let someone else fund the roll-out.
Original source: Restaurant Online — https://www.restaurantonline.co.uk/Article/2026/08/21/sessions-buys-little-bao-boy-as-its-looks-to-international-expansion/
