New Delhi, April 25 -- Top private equity firms are scouring the country to unearth cash-rich regional food brands with healthy balance sheets that offer good growth potential, industry experts told Mint. The objective: discover the next Haldiram. The Nagpur-based snacks maker roped in Alpha Wave Global and Temasek Holdings as investors last month, valuing the company at around $10 billion.

According to Pritha Jha, co-founder of Pioneer Legal, a law firm that has helped food brands raise capital, a lot of investment activity in consumer food brands is happening in places like Nashik, Jaipur and Udaipur.

"For a category like snacks, there is immense scope for scalability," said Jha, adding that sometimes when the next generation doesn't ...