Zomato

Zomato
Type Private
Founded July 2008 (2008-07)
Headquarters New Delhi, Delhi, India
Area served India, Australia, United States, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Slovakia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Malaysia
Founder(s) Deepinder Goyal, Pankaj Chaddah[1]
CEO Deepinder Goyal
Key people
  • Surobhi Das (COO)
  • Gunjan Patidar (CTO)
Industry Consumer Services
Services Restaurant Search & Discovery, Online Ordering, Table Reservations & Management, Whitelabel Apps, POS Systems
Employees 2000+
Website zomato.com
Alexa rank Increase 614 (September 2015)[2]
Type of site Online restaurant search and discovery service
Advertising Yes
Registration Optional on the website
Users 19 million visits monthly
Available in English, Turkish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Spanish, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Italian
Current status Online
Native client(s) on iOS, watchOS, Android, Windows, Windows Phone

Zomato is a restaurant search and discovery service founded in 2008 by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. It currently operates in 23 countries, including India, Australia and the United States.[3] It features restaurant information such as scanned menus and photos sourced by local street teams, as well as user reviews and ratings.

The company also provides cashless payment, online ordering, white-label apps, table reservation, and point-of-sale systems.[4]

History

The service began as "Foodiebay", conceptualised in the cafeteria of Bain & Company. Customers would line up to look at the menus to order food during the lunch hour. Realising this took up a large amount of everyone's time on a daily basis, Deepinder and Pankaj decided to scan restaurant menus and upload it on an intranet website for Bain employees. The website saw a lot of traffic and was launched publicly in 2008.

The website began by listing restaurants in Delhi NCR, and quickly expanded to Kolkata and then Mumbai.

In March 2010, Zomato (Foodiebay) was named among the top 25 most promising internet companies in India by SmartTechie Magazine.[5] Soon after, Info Edge (India), the parent company of the Naukri.com group, invested ₹4.7 crore (US$1 million) in the business.[6]

In November 2010, Foodiebay was renamed to Zomato. The brand name was changed due to a possible move outside of the food sector and also to avoid possible confusion with eBay, as the earlier brand name Foodiebay contained "ebay" in it.[7]

By 2011, Zomato started coverage in Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad and they launched applications for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices.[8] Following the introduction of .xxx domains in 2011, Zomato also launched zomato.xxx, a site dedicated to food porn.[9] The company also launched a print version of the content on the website known as the "Citibank Zomato Restaurant Guide" in collaboration with Citibank in May 2012, but has since been discontinued.[10] During the run, these guides were made available in four cities in India—Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune.[11]

By September 2012, Zomato expanded to its first overseas location, United Arab Emirates, following which, Zomato saw quick expansion into Sri Lanka,[12] Qatar,[13] the United Kingdom,[14] the Philippines, and South Africa.[15]

The company launched in Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand in July 2013, and Hamilton in December 2013.[16] It made its way to Turkey, Brazil, and Indonesia in November 2013, with its website and apps available in Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese, Indonesian, and English.[17]

2014 was a year full of expanding international reach and acquisitions. In April, Zomato launched its services in Portugal. In July, Zomato made its first acquisition by buying New Zealand's Menu-mania for an undisclosed sum.[18] In August the focus was on 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, Zomato acquired Poland-based restaurant search service Gastronauci for an undisclosed sum.[20] In October, Zomato finally entered North America by launching its services in Canada.[21] Shortly after, in November, it extended its reach to Lebanon and Ireland as well.[22][23] In December, Zomato acquired leading Italian restaurant search service Cibando.

Zomato started 2015 by acquiring Seattle-based food portal Urbanspoon for an undisclosed sum (estimated to be around $60 million).[24] The acquisition marked Zomato's entry into the United States, Canada and Australia, and brought it into direct competition with Yelp, Zagat and OpenTable. 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.

In October 2014, Zomato introduced a new logo — the Zomato heart,[26] which in February 2015 was updated to the Urbanspoon's Spoon logo in Zomato red.[27] This was done to ensure that the transition for users from Urbanspoon to Zomato was easier. As per press reports, Zomato now attracts 90 million monthly visits.[28]

Zomato has recently also broadened its reach and acquired companies that focus on other aspects of restaurant businesses. In April 2015, they acquired a four year old Delhi based startup MapleGraph that built MaplePOS, a cloud-based point-of-sale product for restaurants. Zomato renamed the MaplePOS product to ‘Zomato Base’.[29] MaplePOS was Zomato’s first acquisition of a restaurant-focused product outside their core business. In the same month, Zomato also acquired NexTable, a US-based table reservation and restaurant management platform.[30] Together, NexTable and Zomato will launch Zomato Book, a table reservation system for merchants.

On 4th June, 2015, an Indian security researcher hacked the Zomato website, gained access to information about 62.5 million users. Using the vulnerability he was able to access personal data of users such as phone number, email address, and Instagram private photos using their Instagram access token. Zomato fixed the issue within 48 hours of it becoming apparent.[31]

On 15th October, 2015 Zomato changed business strategies from a Full-Stack market to an enterprise market. This led to Zomato firing 10% of its workforce which equals about 300 people.[32]

Funding

Zomato (then known as Foodiebay) raised its first round of funding of US$1 million (₹4.7 crores) from Info Edge (India) in August 2010.[33] Zomato raised its second round of funding of US$3.5million (₹13.5 crores) from the same investor in September 2011.[34] The following year, Zomato raised its third round, of another $2.5 million[35] followed by its fourth round worth US$10 million from Info Edge in early 2013, giving them a 57.9% stake in Zomato.[36]

In November 2013, Zomato raised US$37 million (₹227.6 crores) from Sequoia Capital and Info Edge (India). Info Edge now owns 50.1% of Zomato on an investment of ₹143 crores.[37] The total amount of funding raised by Zomato stood at US$53.5 million as of November 2013.

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 and Vy Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital.[38] This took Zomato’s total funding to over US$113 million.

April 2015 saw another round of funding for Zomato, led by Info Edge, Vy Capital and Sequoia Capital, this time of US $50 million.[39] Six months later, in September 2015, Zomato raised another US$60 million, this time led by a new investor, Temasek, a Singapore government-owned investment company, along with existing investor, Vy Capital.[40] It will use the investment to further grow its new business verticals. This takes Zomato’s total funding to ~$225 million which comes from a close set of four investors – Info Edge, Sequoia India, Vy Capital, and now Temasek.[41]

Products and services

Zomato started by focusing on its restaurant search and discovery model, and has only increased its efforts over the years to provide rich and accurate data to its users. Zomato uses a feet-on-the-street system and sweeps restaurants every three months to ensure that the information provided is as recent as possible.

Zomato has expanded beyond its restaurant guide to various verticals in an attempt to own the entire food experience. Its latest offerings include Cashless Payments,[42] Online Ordering,[43] Whitelabel Apps,[44] Table Reservations[45] and Zomato Base.[45] It earlier had an events section, which has now been discontinued.

Search and discovery

The search and discovery section began by offering listings in major cities in India and now lists over 1 million restaurants across 23 countries.[46] Zomato helps users make dining decisions by providing a variety of information (ranging from the basic like cost and popularity to the more minute like Wifi access and whether the place is pet friendly) to help them narrow down their choices. One can also search restaurants by location, dish, cuisine and establishment type.

Zomato also has a variety of social features. It encourages its users to share their recommendations in the form of reviews, photos and ratings for restaurants with others. Further, you can tag friends in your reviews and photos. Also, you have the option to mark restaurants as Been There, or on the app, Check-in. Your activity appears chronologically on your profile in the form of your Foodie Journey. You can also choose to follow foodies (in your city, or otherwise) so that you can read about their experiences in your Feed. Similar to personal Feed, there is a feature called City Feed, which showcases user reviews and photos, realtime so that you can know what's popular at that moment. You can also bookmark your favourite restaurants so that you're always updated on the happenings like events, promotions and specials.

Bringing together the discovery and social aspects of Zomato, the website and app also have a feature called Collections. Collections are theme based discovery search to help users make a choice. The themes are tailored to each city and are based on popular search categories (e.g.: Kickass Burgers in Delhi, Great Eggspectations in Melbourne, and Mexican Magic in Seattle). For a restaurant to feature in a category, it needs to be popular with the users in terms of reviews and ratings.

Cashless payments

Zomato introduced cashless payments to improve customer experiences. With this feature, consumers can go to a partner restaurant and check-in with the Zomato app. Then, one has to inform the staff at the restaurant of the mode of payment. Each user has a unique identity, and the restaurant connects that to the bill. The payment method integrates with the billing system of the restaurant, so the diner can order food as he or she normally would - and the billing happens automatically in the background. At the moment, Zomato Cashless is available only in Dubai,[47] but other countries are lined up, starting with New Zealand. The Zomato Cashless feature is currently available on iOS and Android devices.

Online ordering

Zomato recently unbundled online ordering.[48] Users can order food on the website, or use the app on their iOS and Android devices. Users can choose between cash on delivery, Zomato Cashless or e-payment options such as debit or credit cards to pay for their meal. Zomato Order started in Delhi, and quickly spread to other cities, including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Indore etc. Dubai is the first International market it launched in, and others are expected to follow soon.[49] The company also released a new app called Zomato Order for Android and iOS devices. Zomato stated that it decided to release a separate app because it believes searching for information about a restaurant, and ordering online are two separate use cases.

In September 2015, Zomato partnered with Paytm in India and integrated the Paytm Wallet with Zomato Order. This move allows users to order online from a vast number of restaurants, and make completely cashless payments using the Paytm Wallet.[50]

Whitelabel apps

In September 2015, Zomato introduced Zomato Whitelabel, a platform that enables restaurants to launch custom-branded native mobile apps, and bridge the gap between them and their customers.[50]

Table reservations

The acquisition of Nextable, a table management and booking platform based in North Carolina, USA in April 2015 allowed Zomato venture into table reservation service. Nextable was renamed to Zomato Book. Zomato book allows users to book tables and thus make reservations through the Zomato website as well as the app.Hundreds of businesses around the world, ranging from small to 1000+ seat restaurants, and even theme park resorts, are already using Zomato book. Zomato Book also gives the restaurant managers a real-time update on what is happening inside the restaurant, enabling them to maximise their seating capacity.[51]

Zomato Base

Zomato acquired MaplePOS in 2015 and renamed it Zomato Base. Base is a cloud-based point of sale product for restaurants. It offers merchants features such as menu, inventory and recipe management, real time analytics, electronic receipts etc. It even has a built-in payment solution to accept debit and credit card payments. The product is still being readied, and currently there is little information as to when it'll be available to merchants.

Events (discontinued)

The Events section on Zomato was introduced in September 2011.[52] This coincided with Zomato's announcement of raising their second round of funding of $3 million from Info Edge (India) Ltd. 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.[53]

Coverage

Countries where Zomato is available.

Zomato covers over a million restaurants across 10,000+ cities in 23 countries.[54]

News

See also

References

  1. ↑ "In Depth Interview with Pankaj Chaddah, Founder of Zomato". The Startup Magazine. November 7, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Zomato.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2015-09-04.
  3. ↑ "Zomato acquires Urbanspoon, enters US market; restaurant coverage to touch a million". Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  4. ↑ Verma, Shrutika. "Zomato expands menu in one-stop-shop quest". http://www.livemint.com/. Retrieved 2015-08-11. External link in |website= (help)
  5. ↑ "Top 25 most promising internet companies in India by SmartTechie Magazine".
  6. ↑ "InfoEdge to Invest INR 4.7 Cr in Foodiebay".
  7. ↑ "How Foodiebay became Zomato".
  8. ↑ "Zomato launches first local-search android application".
  9. ↑ "People looking for food porn come to Zomato.xxx, says founder Deepinder Goyal - The Economic Times". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  10. ↑ "Zomato Launches Printed Food Guide; Monetization, International Expansion, WP7 App".
  11. ↑ "India’s Zomato Expands into Print Restaurant Guides".
  12. ↑ "After UAE, Zomato expands into Sri Lanka; adds a Colombo section | Techcircle.in - India startups, internet, mobile, e-commerce, software, online businesses, technology, venture capital, angel, seed funding". techcircle.vccircle.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  13. ↑ "Zomato expands Middle Eastern presence with Doha launch | Mideaster - Middle East News". mideaster.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  14. ↑ "After UAE & Sri Lanka, Zomato expands into Europe; adds a London section | Techcircle.in - India startups, internet, mobile, e-commerce, software, online businesses, technology, venture capital, angel, seed funding". techcircle.vccircle.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  15. ↑ "Zomato launches in South Africa » NextBigWhat". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  16. ↑ "Update: Zomato Breaks Even In India; Expands To New Zealand". MediaNama. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  17. ↑ "Zomato tackles new languages for first time, takes restaurant listings to Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil".
  18. ↑ "Zomato buys New Zealand’s MenuMania for Rs 5 crore". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  19. ↑ Pani, Priyanka. "Zomato acquires Lunchtime, Obedovat for $3.25 mn". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  20. ↑ "Zomato acquires Poland's Gastronauci, fourth acquisition in three months - The Economic Times". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  21. ↑ "Zomato launches in Canada". MediaNama. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  22. ↑ "Zomato launches Lebanon section; expands into Middle East". www.exchange4media.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  23. ↑ "Zomato launches in Ireland, opens revenue source by making advertisement live on its app - Firstpost". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  24. ↑ Shu, Catherine. "Restaurant Discovery Site Zomato Buys IAC’s Urbanspoon, Enters The U.S.". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  25. ↑ "Zomato strikes 7th deal, buys Turkish firm". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  26. ↑ "Zomato Gets A New Heart". www.afaqs.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  27. ↑ "Zomato: A Spoonful Of Change?". www.afaqs.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  28. ↑ Crabtree, James (2015-07-15). "Europe expansion on the menu for India’s Zomato". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  29. ↑ Ghoshal, Abhimanyu. "Zomato Buys MaplePOS to Offer Restaurant Reservations". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  30. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid. "Zomato Buys NexTable To Rival OpenTable And Yelp In Reservations". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  31. ↑ https://www.techinasia.com/zomato-hacked-indian-online-startups-security-granted/
  32. ↑ "Shifting focus to what matters and what works". Zomato: Official Blog. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
  33. ↑ "Info Edge to invest Rs 4.7 cr in Foodiebay - The Smart Investor". smartinvestor.business-standard.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  34. ↑ "Info Edge to invest Rs 13.5cr in Zomato.com". www.moneycontrol.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  35. ↑ "Info Edge invests $2.3M more in Zomato, ups stake to 48.5% | Techcircle.in - India startups, internet, mobile, e-commerce, software, online businesses, technology, venture capital, angel, seed funding". techcircle.vccircle.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  36. ↑ "Zomato raises 4th round of funding". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  37. ↑ "Sequoia leads $37M funding round in Zomato | VCCircle". www.vccircle.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  38. ↑ "Zomato raises $60 million from Vy Capital, Info Edge & Sequoia". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  39. ↑ "Zomato raises Rs 311 crore from existing investors". Retrieved 2015-09-09.
  40. ↑ "Zomato raises $60 mn from Temasek and Vy Capital". Retrieved 2015-09-09.
  41. ↑ "Zomato Raises $60 Million From Temasek and Vy Capital". NDTV Gadgets360.com. Retrieved 2016-01-16.
  42. ↑ "Zomato Cashless". Zomato. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  43. ↑ "Zomato Order – the quickest way to order food online!". Zomato. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  44. ↑ "Zomato Whitelabel - Platform for Internet Enabled Restaurants.". Zomato. Retrieved 2015-09-09.
  45. 1 2 "Zomato Book". Zomato. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  46. ↑ "Zomato acquires Urbanspoon". Dream Weaver Diaries. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  47. ↑ "Zomato to Enable Cashless Payments in Restaurants on February 1, Starting With Dubai". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  48. ↑ "Zomato rolls out online ordering of food in updated app; to allow cash-less payments | Techcircle.in - India startups, internet, mobile, e-commerce, software, online businesses, technology, venture capital, angel, seed funding". techcircle.vccircle.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  49. ↑ "Zomato launches online ordering in UAE to move its massive call ordering volume to its app - Zawya". www.zawya.com. Retrieved 2015-09-09.
  50. 1 2 "Zomato Launches Whitelabel App Platform for Restaurants". Retrieved 2015-09-09.
  51. ↑ "Zomato launches table reservation service Zomato Book". http://www.livemint.com/. Retrieved 2016-01-16. External link in |website= (help)
  52. ↑ "Updated: Zomato Adds An Events Section; Time To Get Into Online Bookings?". MediaNama. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  53. ↑ "Why has Zomato removed the 'Events' tab from their Homepage header?". Quora. August 3, 2012.
  54. ↑ "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.
  55. ↑ "China’s Baidu may enter India; talks with Zomato, Bookmyshow, BigBasket". Vasopedia India.

External links

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