Zomato is expanding internationally at hectic pace – and they are able to achieve this growth inorganically by acquiring various restaurant web properties across the globe.
Zomato has now made their 5th acquisition in as many months – Italy’s popular restaurant search service Cibando. In last 5 months, Zomato has acquired MenuMania in New Zealand, Lunchtime in Czech Republic, Obedovat in Slovakia, and Gastronauci in Poland. With Italy come under it’s fold, Zomato has now extended their presence in over 20 countries!
Like their most other acquisitions, Zomato is looking to get a headstart in newer countries. With Cibando, they now already have a good base of users and restaurant listings that can leveraged.
The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed!
Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO of Zomato, 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.”
Zomato plans to invest $6M in Italy over the next 2 years to tap a potentially large market. They want to turn Cibando into a comprehensive restaurant search service and for this purpose they are planning to scale up their teams in Rome and Milan to 30-40 full-time employees in the next three months.
Guk Kim, Founder and CEO of Cibando, 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.”
Zomato currently gets over 35 million visits per month on their website as well as mobile app. Their mobile apps contribute to over half of their visitors.
They had recently raised $60 Million at a valuation of USD 660 million. These funds were specifically to accelerate Zomato’s global expansion and new product development.
[…] New Zealand, Lunchtime in Czech Republic, Obedovat in Slovakia, and Gastronauci in Poland, Cibando in Italy, Mekanist in Turkey and their biggest acquisition of UrbanSpoon in the […]
[…] – They are now present in every major market and have achieved it at a frantic pace! They acquired popular Italian search service Cibando in month of November. Prior to that, within a gap of 4 months they had acquired MenuMania in New […]