Type of business Private | Founded July 2008 (2008-07) | |
 | ||
Available in English, Turkish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Spanish, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Italian Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, 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 | ||
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.
Contents
Service
The website provides information and reviews on restaurants, including images of menus where the restaurant does not have its own website.
History
The service began as "Foodiebay" In November 2010, Foodiebay was renamed as Zomato.
Between 2010-13, Zomato raised approximately US$16.7 million from Info Edge (India) giving them a 57.9% stake in Zomato.
By 2011, Zomato launched in Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad and launched smartphone applications. With the introduction of [[.xxx]] domains in 2011, Zomato also launched zomato.xxx, a site dedicated to food porn. 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.
In September 2012, Zomato expanded overseas to the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Qatar, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and South Africa. In 2013, the company launched in New Zealand, Turkey, Brazil, and Indonesia with its website and apps available in Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese, Indonesian, and English.
In November 2013, Zomato raised an additional US$37 million from Sequoia Capital and Info Edge (India). In April 2014, Zomato launched its services in Portugal. In July, Zomato made its first acquisition by buying Menu-mania for an undisclosed sum. The company pursued other acquisitions such as Lunchtime.cz (from the Czech Republic) and Obedovat.sk (from Slovakia) for a combined US$3.25 million.
In September, Zomato acquired Poland-based restaurant search service Gastronauci for an undisclosed sum. In October, Zomato launched its services in Canada. Shortly after, in November, it extended its reach to Lebanon and Ireland as well. In December, Zomato acquired Italian restaurant search service Cibando.
In November 2014, Zomato completed another 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 and Vy Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital.
Zomato acquired Seattle-based food portal Urbanspoon for an undisclosed sum in January 2015. 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 in an all-cash deal.
April 2015 saw another round of funding for Zomato, led by Info Edge, Vy Capital and Sequoia Capital, this time of US$50 million. In September 2015, Zomato raised another US$60 million, led by Temasek, a Singapore government-owned investment company, along with Vy Capital. Zomato's total funding to ~$225 million which comes from a close set of four investors: Info Edge, Sequoia India, Vy Capital, and Temasek Holdings.
In April 2015, Zomato acquired Delhi based startup MapleGraph that built MaplePOS. Zomato renamed the MaplePOS product to 'Zomato Base'. In the same month, Zomato also acquired NexTable, a US-based table reservation and restaurant management platform.
On 4 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. On 15 October 2015, Zomato changed business strategies from a Full-Stack market to an enterprise market. This led Zomato to fire 10% of its workforce, around 300 people.
In Feb 2017, Zomato in a company's blog had explained the concept of cloud kitchen. With its cloud kitchen, the company will help the restaurants to expand their presence without incurring any fixed costs.
In March 2017, Zomato announced that it has launched a gold membership scheme in UAE. Gold membership gets you two rounds of 1+1 drinks on any beverage at various restaurants, bars, and lounges. The same is expected to be launched in India later in 2017. This move is expected to improve Zomato's profitability.