Reinventing hawker heritage: The incredible rise of Munchi Pancakes
Reinventing hawker heritage: The incredible rise of Munchi Pancakes
In 2017, Au Wei Sheng and Calvyn Ng started their first stall and built Munchi Pancakes into a thriving business with 39 outlets island-wide. What’s next for these ambitious entrepreneurs? To expand even further both locally and regionally.
Not Just Pancakes—It’s Munchi
“Our vision was to keep Singapore’s hawker culture alive by reinventing Min Jiang Kueh (peanut pancake) for a new generation. When our first stall drew long queues, we saw the potential to grow into a brand,” shared founders Wei Sheng and Calvyn.
Their vision to evolve a much-loved heritage snack for consumers who crave something fresh yet familiar meant that Munchi Pancakes’ founders had to tap into their food curiosity and community to craft new recipes that blended nostalgia and novelty.
As one founder elaborates, “Our passion for food and trying new things shaped us, but customer feedback guided every step—from new flavours to vegan-friendly options. This mix of curiosity and listening became our foundation for success.”
Turning Crisis Into Loyalty
Another pillar of strength is the pair’s innovative mindset when challenges arise. Instead of letting staff go during the pandemic, they reassigned them. Chefs did more R&D, service crew learned marketing and ops staff learnt administrative work.
This built-up staff loyalty, adaptability, and a strong workplace culture helped Munchi Pancakes to overcome issues of hiring and training new staff as the business expanded—proving that when you take care of your people, they, in turn, take care of your growth.
“We’ve moved from instinct-driven scaling to a structured approach—backed by standardised operations, stronger supply chains, and a clear brand identity. We’ve learned from past challenges and now grow quickly but sustainably, supported by stronger systems and guided by our values—heritage taste, crafted with heart,” remarked one founder.
When Soul Meets Scale
Munchi Pancakes’ values offer a powerful narrative for other entrepreneurs looking to build—venture after venture. Genuine innovation can thrive when heritage meets humanity and Munchi Pancakes’ journey shows you can scale a business without losing its soul.
As one founder puts it, “Entrepreneurship has made us more resilient and people-focused. Our advice: start with heart, listen to our customers and don’t rush to scale. We hope to show that hawker heritage can evolve without losing authenticity—reinventing a humble snack for the future and sharing it globally.”
Even their move toward sustainability, exemplified by a branded Munchi Pancakes Tote Bag, which reduces single-use packaging while doubling as a collectible, is viewed as a conscious strategy to be "meaningful, responsible, and memorable" in the eyes of their expanding fanbase.
Backing The Founder Behind Every Venture
Munchi Pancakes’ ambitious founders continue to believe that there are plenty of growth opportunities despite the fast-changing trends and fierce competition within the F&B industry. “We’re excited about innovation, delivery platforms, regional expansion and taking a heritage-inspired snack to the world,” the founders remarked.
Success stories such as theirs often rely on a mix of vision, resilience, and calculated risk, with the support of partners like OCBC, which helps solve various challenges and pain points of serial entrepreneurs who are looking to grow their business ventures.
Having a bank such as OCBC that knew their track record and portfolio as a group made it easier for the founders to access SME loan financing to secure good locations for future outlets, which led to the growth from 1 stall in 2017 to 39 outlets in 2025. As Munchi Pancakes grew, so did their customers which meant higher transaction volumes across outlets. OCBC’s award-winning digital business banking platform proved useful as it offered various low-cost digital collection solutions as well as real-time cash flow management.
With more ingredients and supplies required, Munchi Pancakes had to source for and pay more overseas suppliers. With OCBC’s digital payment services and FX solutions, such payments became faster and cheaper which led to not just stronger cash flow but also helped the founders build stronger trust and relationships with their suppliers.
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