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We just increased our appetite by acquiring the coolest table reservation platform in town!
Times Internet’s online nightlife and restaurant guide, TimesCity has acquired online table reservation platform Dineout, which enables users to book a table (online or via phone), while availing exciting discounts.
“At TimesCity our vision is to be full service, from discovery to destination. and when it comes to dining out (eating out), the table reservations bit is key thus we have acquired Dineout and ofcourse it is an awesome team,” said Miten Sampat, Business Head of TimesCity, in an interaction with Inc42 Magazine.
Both the companies were in discussion since past 6 months, said Ankit Mehrotra who calls this deal as the largest non ecommerce deal in India till date, keeping the financial details undisclosed.
Prior acquisition, Dineout was actively looking to raise an institutional round of funding for further expansion and was receiving interest. On the other, they had an opportunity to merge with TimesCity. “However, what tipped the scale in favor of a merger was our belief that discovery along with fulfillment together helps close the loop for a customer and provides them with an end to end experience. And this is exactly the vision that Miten, Gautam & Satyan had,” said Ankit Mehrotra, CEO & Co-founder, Dineout.
Based out in Delhi, Dineout was founded 2.5 years back by Ankit Mehrotra, Sahil Jain, Nikhil Bakshi & Vivek Kapoor. In an previous interaction with Inc42 Magazine in December last year, Ankit has shared that they have partnered with over 450+ restaurants from the 2 cities (Delhi & Mumbai) and was seating approximately 18,000 diners a month at their partner restaurants, adding up to a total of 1.75 lakhs diners seated since launch.
The deal will allow Dineout to expand its national presence, add more restaurants to the portfolio and improve its commitment to serve our customers. Dineout will also be introducing an improved personal recommendation engine based on user inputs gathered from Timescity.com. Whereas, TimesCity users can now simply book a table while exploring places to eat.
Last year, TimesCity had also acquired location-based restaurant recommendation app Gawbl.
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