Zomato Makes Its Fifth Recent Purchase In A Row With Cibando
Acquisition on the Menu: Zomato Makes Its Fifth Recent Purchase In A Row With Cibando
Zomato is on an acquisition spree with an appetite for expansion. The Gurgaon based Indian firm has further expanded internationally through its acquisition of Italian peer Cibando. The amount for which the deal was carried out remains undisclosed.
Expanding International Presence
Through this agreement, this 7 year old company has expanded its presence to around 20 countries. Zomato was established by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah and it is now planning to increase the Rome and Milan teams to 30-40 employee strength within the remaining 3 months. Zomato will also invest USD 6 million in the nation and increase team size to around 150 to 200 people in the top 6 cities.
La Dolce Vita
With a stomach for expansion, this company is acquiring Cibando which is a 4 year old venture with a headcount of about 10 persons. Cibando was established by Guk Kim and is said to have listings of more than 82,000 restaurants and approximately 7,000 reviews composed by its own editors.
Its founder Kim has a talent for successful ventures. He also founded Mobatar which is a mobile advertising platform which is self serving and acquired by an Italian firm. His second venture Cibando will be integrated with Zomato over the next few months.
Bon Appetite
Zomato has a mobile restaurant search app and it provides information plus reviews for over 300,000 restaurants across 20 nations. It has a good appetite for international expansion which finds its satiation in Cibando.
“Cibando's existing traffic and user base will give us a great start as we launch Zomato in the country,” Deepinder Goyal, founder cum CEO of Zomato, was quoted as having said “I think we have a lot to learn from them about the local market.”
Lucky Number Five
This is the fifth acquisition for Zomato. In recent months, the company has acquired MenuMania based in New Zealand, Lunchtime in the Czech Republic, Obedovat in Slovakia and Gastronauci in Polland to name a few.
“Our immediate focus will be on integrating Cibando into Zomato, and on building the most comprehensive restaurant search service for the Italian market. We will also scale up our teams in Rome and Milan to 30-40 full-time employees in the next three months,” Goyal has added.
About Zomato
Zomato is known for its website and mobile apps which attract around 35 million visits per month. This restaurant search and discovery service has the backing of Vy Capital as well as Sequoia Capital and Info Edge. Cibando is its third European acquisition and it now has presence in 20 nations. Zomato has an intensely labor intensive business model as against other internet based companies.
This restaurant search and discovery engine company collects menus from eateries and restaurants and scans them through OCR. The menu data is then re-checked in person via a team by the company so that the menu stays updated. Zomato has many competitors such as Yelp, Urban spoon and OpenTable but its distinctive approach distinguishes it from competitors.
Zomato Media Pvt Ltd has stayed away from the US so far where competitors such as Yelp and OpenTable are dominating. “Our acquisition strategy is to either acquire a market leader or to make sure that the acquisition will help us be a market leader in a very short span,”Pankaj Chaddah, co-founder of Zomato has been quoted as saying.Leaving aside Italy, Zomato is also competing with Yelp in other nations such as Canada, New Zealand and Chile.
The company has also raised USD 113 million and currently valued at USD 660 million with over 900 employees in 100 cities across 20 nations.
“Zomato has been expanding at a rapid pace, and we’re excited about being part of that journey. Together, we will be able to offer detailed information for even more restaurants to our users in Italy and beyond, while also helping restaurant businesses connect and engage with customers effectively,” Kim, founder and CEO of Cibando was quoted as saying by Livemint.
