Zomato has acquired NexTable, a U.S based restaurant reservation / table management platform. The terms of the deal has not been disclosed.
The company, which values above $1 billion, has however mentioned that it is a cash and stock deal. NexTable competed till now against services such as OpenTable from Priceline and SeatMe from Yelp. The service by NexTable will soon be renamed as Zomato Book.
If studied carefully, NexTable had been essentially bootstrapped with no outside funding. It had been based out of Charlotte, North Carolina for the time. This seems to be one of the main reasons why the company decided to deal with Zomato.
TC DeSilva, CEO and Founder of NexTable said in a statement that the company found it hard to get business. He believes that any new table reservations product faces a challenge to scale a sales team without the support of a “massive funding”. Also, without “significant consumer presence”, the company found it hard to sell the product. He believes that Zomato will be able to solve both these issues and is excited to partner with them.
Zomato will be expanding NexTable’s reach to international markets such as India, Australia and the Emirates, as told by Co Founder and COO of Zomato, Pankaj Chaddah. This would be Zomato’s second acquisition in the United States, after it had taken over Urbanspoon in January from its owner, IAC. According to Zomato, the deal was for $52 million.
However, it seems NexTable has something to bring into the table from its own. It would bring some interesting innovations for Zomato. NexTable has developed a platform where restauranteurs would be able to update their data and listings from a smartphone or a tablet. The company would also help Zomato to let restaurants to update their menus, deals and other services such as discounts, on a real time basis.
Zomato has now marked its presence in 22 countries, including Poland, Italy and New Zealand.
