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Tag: Zomato

  • Zomato enters US with Urbanspoon acquisition

    Zomato enters US with Urbanspoon acquisition

    MUMBAI: Zomato, the restaurant search app, has acquired US-based food portal Urbanspoon for an undisclosed amount in an all-cash deal. The acquisition marks Zomato’s entry into the United States.

    This also establishes Zomato’s presence in Australia and Canada, while adding to its already dominant position in United Kingdom and New Zealand. After the acquisition, Zomato will be present in 22 countries across the world. Its restaurant coverage will increase from about 300k restaurants to more than 1 million restaurants across the globe. Zomato’s traffic will more than double from about 35 million visits per month to more than 80 million visits per month, probably making it the largest restaurant search company in the world.

    Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said, “Our US entry has been on the cards for a while now, and we’re delighted to be doing so by welcoming Urbanspoon into Zomato. They have a strong presence in the US and the UK, and they also dominate restaurant search in Australia and Canada. Urbanspoon has a huge following, and is home to legions of people who are as passionate about food as we are. We will soon be integrating the two products to bring the best of both products to our users in the United States as well as the rest of the world.”

    The teams will be working closely over the coming months to integrate Urbanspoon into Zomato. In due course of time, all Urbanspoon traffic will move to Zomato.com, and all Urbanspoon app users will be able to use the Zomato app. This acquisition also has a lot to offer to restaurant businesses. Zomato’s hyperlocal advertising model, combined with Zomato for business app suite, will allow restaurant businesses to reach out to, connect with, and engage customers like never before.

    “Zomato has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years, and our customer bases complement each other’s perfectly,” said Urbanspoon CEO Keela Robison. “Zomato’s significant investments in people and technology will bring Urbanspoon customers, restaurant owners, and food bloggers a number of new capabilities and features. We’re excited to combine our strengths to accelerate growth.”

    This is Zomato’s sixth acquisition in the past six months, and the biggest one. Zomato has recently acquired local dominant restaurant search players in New Zealand, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Italy.

     

  • Zomato acquires Italian restaurant search service Cibando

    Zomato acquires Italian restaurant search service Cibando

    MUMBAI: Zomato, a restaurant search service already present across 20 countries, has acquired Italy’s leading restaurant search service Cibando.

     

    Cibando will soon be integrated with Zomato, and over the next few months, users will be able to use Zomato for all major cities in Italy.

    Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said, “Cibando is one of the largest restaurant search services in Italy. Their existing traffic and user base will give us a great start as we launch Zomato in the country. And we love the Cibando team – I think we have a lot to learn from them about the local market. The entire Cibando team is joining Zomato and will lead the effort of building the business in Italy. We are really excited to be joining forces with them as we focus on being Italy’s — and the world’s — go-to restaurant search service.”

    Cibando founder and CEO Guk Kim said, “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.”

    “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 added.

    This is Zomato’s fifth acquisition in the recent months. Zomato acquired MenuMania in New Zealand, Lunchtime in Czech Republic, Obedovat in Slovakia, and Gastronauci in Poland recently.

     

  • Zomato raises $60 million from Vy Capital and existing investors

    Zomato raises $60 million from Vy Capital and existing investors

    MUMBAI: Zomato, the popular restaurant search and discovery service, has closed a fresh round of funding of $60 million at a post-money valuation of $660 million.

    These funds will be used to accelerate Zomato’s global expansion and new product development. This round of funding is being led jointly by Info Edge (India) and Vy Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital. This takes Zomato’s total funding to over $113 million. Zomato has earlier raised $53 million from Info Edge (India) and Sequoia Capital over multiple rounds of funding.

    Founded in 2008, Zomato provides up-to-date detailed information, menus and photos for over 300,000 restaurants across the 18 countries it is present in on both web and mobile.

    Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said, “Zomato is well on its way to becoming the world’s local expert in dining out. In the past year, we have added eight countries and millions of new users to our foodie truck. From just restaurant discovery and menus, Zomato has now become a vast global community driven by social interactions. This is an exciting point in our journey, as we accelerate our way across the globe, and build a product that will continue to redefine the way people dine.”

    Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani added, “Our first investment in Zomato was made almost 4 years ago, and the team has shown phenomenal progress since then to build the Zomato that we know and use. The company is growing very fast, and we are proud to back them up to further grow the business – both inside and outside of India.”

    Vy Capital founding partner Alexander Tamas said, “Zomato is one of the first internet companies out of India with a consumer product that is scaling on a global basis and a team that is executing extremely well against the opportunity. We look forward to being long-term partners of the company as it establishes itself among the global internet leaders.”

    Headquartered in New Delhi, Zomato plans to expand to 14 more countries across Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Americas.

     

  • Meet the Heart: Zomato shows its passion for food

    Meet the Heart: Zomato shows its passion for food

     MUMBAI: For Indians, food is love. We tend to show how much we love a person by feeding the other till he/she gets indigestion!

     

    Maybe that’s why the experiment called Zomato, which started six years ago, has crossed borders and is serving millions across the globe. “Looking back, we loved our food too much to go with boring, predictable choices. Or worse still, take a chance with a poor one. So we built something that would help everyone discover more than the usual. Before we knew it, our colleagues and friends were using this treasure trove of information, encouraging us to do more,” wrote the founder and co-founder Deepinder Goyal in a blog recalling how he and his team would have killed to get where they are right now.

     

    Currently available in 17 countries and five languages, Zomato, has rebranded itself to keep pace with the transition it is going through. “As a global brand, we felt we needed a logo that could transcend languages, cultures, and geographical boundaries, and be recognised easily by people the world over,” said the company’s CMO Rameet Arora.

     

    Goyal wrote that now people spend way too much time in front of screens on the digital social networks, and have stopped connecting with people in real life. “But we believe that a good meal, along with good company, is where we find answers to all of life’s challenges. A bad meal, even with good company, takes days to digest. This simple belief about ‘people and food’ gives us our wings and purpose.”

     

    And hence, came the “heart” in the restaurant search and discovery platform. The new logo signifies its connection with those who share Zomato’s passion for food. The idea for the logo came from within Zomato, based on its philosophy and constant interaction with its consumers over the years. “We worked closely with Helvetic Brands of Switzerland to develop the design for the logo; the brand identity was defined and created in-house,” informed Arora.

     

    And that’s not all. It recently announced the launch of its operations in Toronto providing detailed information for over 11,000 restaurants. “We currently see more than 30 million visits to our website and mobile apps every month. We are focused on becoming the world’s ‘go to’ restaurant search service and dining – our experts and our product pipeline are geared towards taking us there as we steadily expand our global footprint,” highlighted Arora.

     

    In the coming few months, it is focused on growing internationally with launches in Malaysia, Vietnam, Ireland, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Colombia in the pipeline.

  • Zomato acquires Gastronauci.pl

    Zomato acquires Gastronauci.pl

    Zomato has acquired Poland’s restaurant search service, Gastronauci.

     

    Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said, “Ola and the Gastronauci team have built an excellent product that has a significant mind share in Poland. We are very happy to welcome Gastronauci into the Zomato family. Both Zomato and Gastronauci are committed towards building the best platform possible to connect users and the restaurant industry. We are excited to work on building an integrated product combining our technology with Gastronauci’s exhaustive reach in Poland.”

     

    The team at Gastronauci will be working closely with the Zomato team following the acquisition.

     

    “We have had great success in building a strong and engaging user base for Gastronauci in Poland since 2007. This is an exciting new chapter for us and we look forward to working with Zomato and use their technology and product expertise to bring a new enhanced experience for both consumers and merchants,” said Gastronauci founder and CEO Ola Lazar.

     

    Zomato international operations director Pramod Rao added, “We are planning to expand into multiple geographies in the immediate future and expansion in Europe is one of our key focus areas. We are delighted to have Gastronauci on board and look forward to strengthening our presence further in Central and Eastern Europe.”

     

    Zomato has been aggressively expanding its global presence over the past two quarters, while also strengthening its presence in existing 16 markets. In August 2014, Zomato acquired Lunchtime.cz and Obedovat.sk, the Czech Republic’s and Slovakia’s most popular restaurant guides respectively, for a combined amount of $3.25 million. Shortly before that, in July 2014, Zomato acquired MenuMania, the leading restaurant discovery service in New Zealand. The three acquisitions in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland are strategic moves to establish Zomato’s presence as a leader in the restaurant discovery space in central and eastern Europe.

  • Zomato appoints Rameet Arora as CMO

    Zomato appoints Rameet Arora as CMO

    MUMBAI: Zomato has appointed Rameet Arora as chief marketing officer.

     

    With over 17 years of experience in the field of advertising and marketing, Arora will take over as CMO from this month, and will be responsible for Zomato’s marketing efforts globally.

     

    Zomato co-founder & COO Pankaj Chaddah said, “It’s great to have Rameet on board. He comes with a lot of relevant experience, and we look forward to scaling our marketing efforts in potential markets as well as driving quicker growth in our existing ones.”

     

    A month ago, he had exited from McDonals where he served as a senior director of marketing and  menu management.

     

    “It’s great to be a part of such a fast-growing team. Number one on the agenda is to make Zomato a global synonym for food,” said Arora, who joins Zomato in the midst of its aggressive international expansions and extensive product development.

     

    Prior to McDonald’s, Rameet was Colors marketing head. Over the years, Arora has been associated with the top advertising and marketing companies, most notably Leo Burnett, where he spent over eight years.

  • IAMAI talks digital

    IAMAI talks digital

    MUMBAI: It’s time to take conversations on digital to the next level believes CMOs. At the 10th marketing conclave hosted by Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) the point of discussions revolved around how brands are and should revise digital business and promotional strategies.

     

    While it is understood that for brands today ‘digital’ is a must have platform in its media mix; marketers are willing to go beyond the traditional line of communication. It is interesting to note how CMOs are thinking digital to push business as not just another medium of promotion, but are now ready to revise digital strategies too.

     

    Today, traditional advertisements are created thinking whether or not it would be shared online. Word-of-mouth now happens more on digital platforms like social and mobile.

     

    According to Taj Group’s director internet marketing Namrita Sehgal, the change will begin when marketers start thinking digital. “Humanising communication and offering personalised experiences is what brands need to start doing on digital. Consumers should be spoilt for choices because today there are multiple windows to cater to.”

     

    There will always be price parity and someone will always give you that extra per cent off believes Pinstrom founder Mahesh Murthy.

     

    Different brand categories have different needs to take care of on digital but the bottom line of every move needs to revolve around the engagement factor. Vodafone Group head- marketing Vodafone Solutions- Emerging Markets advices, “Brands shouldn’t shy away from the changing dynamics of communication.”

     

    MoneyControl.com chief operating officer Rubeena Singh thinks this challenge comes from the ever changing consumer need. Brands need to start looking at integration with more seriousness; if the plan is to make a mark. Valuefirst chief executive officer, Vishwadeep Bajaj is of the opinion that the need of the hour is to make content contextual. On the other hand, Puma India’s head-marketing Isaac John, thinks that brands should focus on putting across content to the point and not bombard them. “The art of storytelling needs to be crafted well if brands want to make a mark on digital too,” added John.

     

    For Sehgal, spotting loyal consumers and building communities on digital media is on his to-do list for the days to come. Singh too believes that content marketing is the way to go. Marketers have started looking at roping in the right talent to enhance digital business and communication. It can also be observed that SMEs are getting it right on digital. For these scale of businesses digital has been like a game changer. Mass brands are impressed by the way these small businesses are hitting the right cord on digital.

     

    To create digital first strategies, brands over time have also transformed themselves to suit the current screen to screen era. McDonalds director marketing & PR Rameet Arora emphasises on the point that today a customer wants everything with just one click of a mouse. “For instance, if a person wants to know how many calories does a type of burger has, we at McDonalds have to give him that. Brands have to make sure that all the criteria’s of a customer’s needs are fulfilled.”

     

    The CMOs feel that the digital model has helped smaller brands to compete and grow as well. Marketing Unplugged CEO Suman Srivastava pointed out the Zomato model.

     

    MTV India digital head Ekalavya Bhattacharya went on say that the need today is not only to get a viewer on board but to also know his/her preference and work according to that so he/she comes to the medium again and again. “If a person listens to a particular kind of a song say on the website or on our app then we should be equipped enough to know that he/she needs to be contacted when say a musician of his/her choice plays in the city.”

     

    An idealist thought indeed.

     

    It is impressive to see how serious marketers are towards digital. For marketers the road ahead on digital looks easy to discover because the communication has definitely gone to the next level. The only thing that might come as a hurdle is the challenge to decode big data smartly and get focused.