White Rabbit Projects secures backing from Gail’s investor McWin: White Rabbit Projects, the hospitality incubator, has secured a “significant capital injection” from food industry entrepreneurs Henry McGovern and Steven Winegar, who’ve backed brands including bakery concept Gail’s and pasta chain Vapiano, to invest in new projects. Propel understands the Chris Miller-led White Rabbit – which has helped launch brands including Island Poké, Kricket and Lina Stores – has secured a multimillion-pound investment, believed to be in the “tens of millions”, from McWin, the private investment firm specialising in the foodservice and food technology sectors. The two companies said the investment will bolster White Rabbit's full-service development platform for early-stage hospitality businesses, injecting fresh capital for new and existing concepts and accelerating the international expansion of its portfolio companies following their success in France and Japan. It is understood that with McWin’s backing, White Rabbit Projects will look at new business opportunities in the UK and globally. While White Rabbit typically targets early-stage concepts with between zero and five sites, it is thought the new funding now gives it the capability to target larger opportunities where there is a “strong strategic play for the platform”. White Rabbit was founded in 2016 by former Soho House commercial director Miller, and started life as an investment vehicle. The company said its unique development platform “identifies and incubates early-stage hospitality brands, helping them to scale with a focus on quality and guest experience, through its full suite of best-in-class creative and business services spanning operations, culinary, marketing, finance, and design”. White Rabbit’s portfolio currently comprises more than 900 staff across 52 global sites.  The company said: “As the incubator’s prestige has grown, White Rabbit's in-house, bespoke hospitality creative business, White Rabbit Studio, has been met with high demand, designing, developing, and operating bespoke hospitality concepts for hotels and landlords.” Its portfolio here includes 18 St Andrews, The Lawn, Garden House, The Alice, Rusacks St Andrews and Marine North Berwick. McWin, which was founded by McGovern, founder of AmRest Holdings, and Winegar, shareholder and senior executive of Zena Group and founder of Restauravia Grupo Empresarial, currently advises three investment vehicles, and has total assets under management of more than €1bn with a growing portfolio made up of more than 1,300 restaurants, and an ambition to become a dominant player in Europe. The two businesses said they share values in their “respective efforts to help the global hospitality sector navigate the coming economic downturn”. They said: “White Rabbit's track record of ‘de-risking growth’ for early-stage hospitality businesses comes at a critical juncture. The industry is facing a huge structural shift where business models need to adapt to not just survive but thrive.” Miller added: “The hospitality industry provides so much for so many people, from great times to great careers. It is a tragedy a sector so economically necessary and universally loved has faced nothing short of decimation in recent years. And the sad reality is this will only get worse in the coming downturn. We will lose swathes of operators as the recession bites. Perhaps the only good news is recessions can bear fruit with careful management. Some of the world’s most-loved hospitality brands were born of downturns. This investment allows us to continue our success in identifying and supporting the next wave with our unique platform approach. We go beyond investment by seeking out, incubating and scaling high quality hospitality businesses, and supporting founders and their teams during these challenging times. Those with the right tools and expertise at their disposal will come to define the next wave of global food trends. McWin’s investment is a vote of confidence in our approach. This injection of capital greatly bolsters our ability to find green shoots and to help them grow in a scalable and sustainable way.”  McGovern said: “We are thrilled to partner with White Rabbit’s founders who share our love of building businesses, with a clear focus on customers and a target for operational excellence. The McWin team has more than 150 years of combined experience of successfully operating and scaling brands in the hospitality industry across multiple countries and will help White Rabbit reach the next level.” Winegar added: “As a multi-brand restaurant operator, White Rabbit is a great addition to our portfolio and this investment underlines our growth ambitions to become a dominant player in the European restaurant sector.” McGovern and Winegar launched their McWin Restaurant Fund in August, with primary backing from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. In September, it signed a deal to become the master franchisee for Burger King in Poland. Ali Aneizi, of Tamweel, acted on the deal between White Rabbit and McWin.