Zomato is Unstoppable: Fifth Acquisition Of The Year

Post its recent funding of $60 Mn restaurant discovery app Zomato has acquired Italy’s leading restaurant search service Cibando for an undisclosed sum. The company now has a presence in 20 countries.

A few other startups acquired by Zomato include MenuMania in New Zealand, Lunchtime in Czech Republic, Obedovat in Slovakia, and Gastronauci in Poland.

Cibando hosts database for over 82,000 restaurants in Italy. Zomato plans to invest $6 Mn in Italy over the next 2 years to grow the team and the business in the country. The said acquisition is expected to be completed over the next week.

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.”

“Our acquisition strategy is to either acquire a market leader or to make sure that the acquisition will help us be a market leader in a very short span,”said Pankaj Chaddah, co-founder of Zomato.

In total, the Zomato has raised $113 Mn and is currently valued at $660 Mn. Given Zomato’s behemoth size, its appetite for buying up local players doesn’t show any signs of lessening.