Zomato

Zomato
Type Private
Founded July 2008
Headquarters New Delhi, Delhi, India
No. of locations 150+ cities
Area served India, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Slovakia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom
Founder(s) Deepinder Goyal[1]
CEO Deepinder Goyal
Key people
  • Pankaj Chaddah (COO)
  • Gunjan Patidar (CTO)
Owner Info Edge (India) Ltd. (50.1%)
Employees 900+
Website zomato.com (formerly foodiebay.com until November 2010)
Alexa rank Decrease 1,369 (February 2014)[2]
Type of site Online restaurant search and discovery service
Advertising Yes
Registration Optional
Users 62.5 million
Available in English, Turkish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Spanish, Czech, Slovak
Launched July 2008
Current status Online

Zomato is an online restaurant search and discovery service providing information on home delivery, dining-out, cafés and nightlife in cities of India and 21 other countries. The site has an Alexa rank of 1,369 in the world and 117 in India as of February 2015.[3]

History

In 2010, the website was named among the top 25 most promising internet companies in India by SmartTechie Magazine.[4] By June 2010, the website broke even and had expanded its reach to Bangalore and Pune. That is when Info Edge (India), the parent company of the Naukri.com group, invested INR4.7 crore (US$1 million) in the business.[5]

In November 2010, Foodiebay.com was renamed Zomato.com. The brand name was changed due to a possible move outside of the food vertical and also to avoid a possible conflict with eBay, because the earlier brand name Foodiebay contained "ebay" in it.[6] By 2011, Zomato launched coverage in Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. Also in 2011, Zomato launched applications for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices.[7] Zomato also launched a print version of the content on the website in collaboration with Citibank in May 2012. The guides are marketed and sold under the name "Citibank Zomato Restaurant Guide". During the launch, these guides were made available for four cities in India—Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune.[8][9] As per press reports, Zomato got around 2.5 million visitors on its website in March 2012.[10]

Following the introduction of .xxx domains in 2011, Zomato launched zomato.xxx, a site dedicated to food porn.[11]

In September 2012, Zomato expanded to its first overseas location by launching its services in Dubai, UAE.[12] This was followed by quick expansion into Sri Lanka, Qatar, the United Kingdom, the Philippines,[13] and South Africa.[14] The company launched in Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand in July 2013, and Hamilton in December 2013.[15] It launched in Turkey in November 2013, with its website and apps available in Turkish and English.[16] More recently Zomato expanded to Brazil and Indonesia.[17]

In July 2014, Zomato made its first acquisition by buying New Zealand's Menu-mania for an undisclosed sum.[18] In August 2014, Zomato continued its expansion with more acquisitions, this time in Europe. The company acquired online restaurant guides Lunchtime.cz (from the Czech Republic) and Obedovat.sk (from Slovakia) for a combined $3.25 million.[19] In September 2014, Zomato acquired Poland-based restaurant search service Gastronauci for an undisclosed sum.[20] In October 2014, Zomato introduced a new logo.[21] In December 2014, Zomato acquired leading Italian restaurant search service Cibando.[22] In January 2015, Zomato acquired Seattle-based food portal Urbanspoon for an undisclosed sum, estimated to be around $60 million. The acquisition marked Zomato's entry into the United States, Canada and Australia, and brought it into direct competition with Yelp, Zagat and OpenTable.[23][24] In the same month, Zomato also acquired Mekanist, one of Turkey's largest restaurant search players, in an all-cash deal that makes Zomato the most exhaustive restaurant search service in the country.[25] The acquisition increased Zomato's coverage from about 27,500 restaurants in Istanbul and Ankara to more than 50,000 restaurants across Turkey.[26]

Funding

Zomato (then known as Foodiebay) raised its first round of funding of US$1 million (INR4.7 crores) from Info Edge (India) in August 2010.[27] Zomato raised its second round of funding of US$3.5million (INR13.5 crores) from the same investor in September 2011.[28] The following year Zomato raised its third round of another US$2.5 million [29] followed by its fourth round worth US$10 million from Info Edge in early 2013, giving them a 57.9% stake in Zomato.[30]

In November 2013, Zomato raised US$37 million (INR227.6 crores) from Sequoia Capital and Info Edge (India).[17][31] Info Edge now owns 50.1% of Zomato on an investment of INR 143 crores.[32] The total amount of funding raised by Zomato stands at $53.5 million as of November 2013.[33]

In November 2014, Zomato closed a fresh round of funding of US$60 million at a post-money valuation of ~US$660 million. This round of funding was being led jointly by Info Edge (India) Limited [34][35] and Vy Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital. This takes Zomato’s total funding to over US$113 million.[36]

On April 10 2015, the company had raised $50M in Series F funding from Info Edge, Sequoia Capital & One other investor. This led company valued at $1B. On April 14, 2015 the company bought MaplePOS system for integration of B2B payments in the application.

Website setup

Zomato has two sections – restaurant guide & blog. It earlier had an events section, which has now been discontinued.

Restaurant Guide

The Restaurant Guide section began by offering listings in major cities in India and listed 35,000 restaurants and menus as of 2012.[27] Zomato's website received 2.5 million visitors in March 2012.[10] The Zomato app now includes some new features such as restaurant check-ins and the ability to tag friends in reviews. There is also the promise of adding cashless payments through the app very soon.[37]

Blog

The blog section features a blog maintained by the Zomato team.

Events (discontinued)

The Events section on Zomato was introduced in September 2011.[8] This coincided with Zomato's announcement of raising their second round of funding of $3 million from Info Edge (India) Ltd.[9] Later, Zomato shut down its events section and included some of the features into its core restaurant product as confirmed by Zomato's CEO, Deepinder Goyal on Quora.[38]

Coverage

Zomato covers over 331,200 restaurants in 22 countries.[39]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Zomato raises Rs 227 crore from Sequoia, InfoEdge for overseas expansion". The Times Of India. November 7, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Zomato.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2015-02-01.
  3. ↑ "zomato.com Site Overview". alexa.com. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  4. ↑ "BigAdda, Jivox, Seventymm, HolidayIQ among 25 Most Promising Internet Companies". Alootechie. March 10, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Infoedge to invest Rs 4.7Cr in Foodiebay". Business Standard. August 25, 2010.
  6. ↑ "Foodiebay rebrands to Zomato". Pluggd. November 14, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Zomato launches first local search application". India Infoline. February 4, 2011.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Zomato Launches Printed Food Guide; Monetization, International Expansion, WP7 App". Medianama. April 6, 2012.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Zomato Expands Into Print; Launches Restaurant Guide For 4 Cities". Pluggd. April 5, 2012.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "The Ideas Factory - Food on the Go". India Today. April 27, 2012.
  11. ↑ "Click to order: Can online food ordering websites dethrone Zomato?". NDTV Gadgets. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  12. ↑ "Bon Appetite, Dubai!". Khaleej Times. Aug 31, 2012.
  13. ↑ "Zomato enters Philippines". Business Standard.
  14. ↑ "Zomato forays into South Africa". The Business Line. April 10, 2013.
  15. ↑ Ryan, Holly (1 July 2014). "MenuMania buy a boost for Zomato". New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  16. ↑ Sangeetha Chengappa. "After US, Zomato enters Turkey with acquisition of Mekanist". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Backed By Sequoia, Zomato Closes $37M Series D To Expand Its Restaurant Discovery Service Internationally". Techcrunch. Nov 6, 2013.
  18. ↑ "Zomato Buys Stake In Menumania". Bloomberg TV India.
  19. ↑ "Restaurant Discovery Service Zomato Eats Its Way Into Central And Eastern Europe With Two Acquisitions".
  20. ↑ "Zomato acquires Poland's Gastronauci, fourth acquisition in three months". The Economic Times.
  21. ↑ "Zomato Gets Revamped with New Logo, New Design, and More on Latest Update!". Nokia Revolution. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  22. ↑ "Restaurant Discovery Service Zomato Acquires Italy’s Cibando".
  23. ↑ "Zomato to buy US food portal Urbanspoon for $60 mn, may give competition to Yelp". The Economic Times. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  24. ↑ Vardaan. "Zomato Enters US Market, Acquires Urbanspoon In An All-Cash Deal". IndianWeb2.com. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  25. ↑ "Zomato: Official Blog – Hoşgeldin Mekanist!". zomato.com. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  26. ↑ "Zomato acquires Turkey-based Mekanist in all-cash deal". The Economic Times. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 "Info Edge to invest Rs 4.7 cr in Foodiebay". Business Standard. Aug 25, 2010.
  28. ↑ "Info Edge to invest Rs 13.5 Cr in Zomato.com". Money Control. Sep 8, 2011.
  29. ↑ "Info Edge invests $2.3M more in Zomato, ups stake to 48.5%". VCCircle. Sep 8, 2011.
  30. ↑ "Zomato raises 4th round of funding". Economic Times. Feb 22, 2013.
  31. ↑ "Zomato raises Rs 227 crore from Sequoia & InfoEdge". The Times Of India. November 6, 2013.
  32. ↑ "Announcements". bseindia.com. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  33. ↑ "Zomato raises Rs. 227 cr". The Hindu (Chennai, India). November 6, 2013.
  34. ↑ thehindu (24 Nov 2014). "Zomato raises over Rs 365 crore from three investors". thehindu. Retrieved 19 Nov 2014.
  35. ↑ moneycontrol (24 Nov 2014). "After Zomato, will also invest in 99acres: Info Edge". moneycontrol. Retrieved 20 Nov 2014.
  36. ↑ "Zomato Raises $60 million From Vy Capital, Sequoia Capital and Info Edge". NextBigWhat. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  37. ↑ "Zomato Adds Check-Ins and Tagging; Payments and Ordering Coming Soon". NDTV Gadgets. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  38. ↑ "Why has Zomato removed the 'Events' tab from their Homepage header?". Quora. August 3, 2012.
  39. ↑ "Restaurants in India, United Kingdom, UAE, South Africa, Philippines, New Zealand, Qatar & Sri Lanka. Delhi Restaurants, Mumbai Restaurants, Gurgaon Restaurants, London Restaurants, Dubai Restaurants, Bangalore Restaurants, Pune, Abu Dhabi, Colombo, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Sharjah, Manila, Auckland, Wellington, Cape Town, Johannesburg Restaurants". zomato.com. Retrieved 14 February 2015.

External links