Zomato buys US-based UrbanSpoon

Food discovery site and search app Zomato has acquired US-based discovery platform UrbanSpoon in an undisclosed all cash deal.

This is its sixth acquisition in the last six months that also marks the company’s entry in Canada and Australia. Zomato is now present in 20-odd countries.

Pankaj Chaddah, Co-founder, Zomato, told

BusinessLine that UrbanSpoon will be rechristened and branded as Zomato in three months. “The idea is to build a global brand and we hope that we will become of the largest player in the segment in another 12 months,” he said. Rocket Internet-backed FoodPanda and US-based Yelp are the two major global players.

Chaddah added that in next 6 months, the company would go slow with the expansion activities but instead focus on strengthening and consolidating the business in the markets it is already present.

He said the team of Urbanspoon has been completely integrated with the Zomato team and the company also plans to hire 300 in the US. Urbanspoon’s current team is consists of 45 people. “Zomato has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years, and our customer bases complement each other’s perfectly,” said Keela Robison, Urbanspoon CEO. “Zomato’s significant investments in people and technology will bring Urbanspoon customers, restaurant owners, and bloggers a number of new capabilities and features. We’re excited to combine our strengths to accelerate growth.”

Zomato has recently acquired local dominant restaurant search players in New Zealand, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Italy. “This acquisition also has a lot to offer to restaurant businesses. Zomato’s hyperlocal advertising model, combined with the Zomato for Business app suite, will allow restaurant businesses to reach out to, connect with, and engage customers like never before,” he said.

Chaddah said the traffic will more than double from 35 million visits per month to over 80 millions, probably making it the largest restaurant search company in the world with this acquisition.