Indian Restaurant Discovery Service Zomato Acquires Italy's Cibando | TechTree.com

Indian Restaurant Discovery Service Zomato Acquires Italy's Cibando

The acquisition is part of Zomato's plan to accelerate international expansion

 

Delhi-based restaurant search and discovery service Zomato has acquired Italy's Cibando, as part of its efforts to accelerate international expansion . While the financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but the acquisition follows Zomato entry into the Central and Eastern Europe region by scooping up two local services.

According to the company, all of Cibando's team will be joining Zomato and will lead its effort to build the service in Italy. Cibando's traffic and user base will be transitioned into Zomato, while $6 million will be invested in the newly acquired firm over the next two years to grow its headcount 150-200 people.

Zomato's immediate plans are to grow its team headcount in Milan and Rome from the current 10 people to 30-40 full-time employees in the next three months. The plans to increase staff is a reflection of the company's labor intensive business model, compared to its purely internet based rivals.

A large part of the company's staff is made up of teams that hit the road and collect menus and take on-location photographs of restaurants. Members of these teams also re-check and update if necessary the information from each and every restaurant, ensuring that users aren't in for any nasty surprises.

“Their (Cibando's) existing rich content base, traffic and user base will give us a great start as we launch Zomato in the country,” said Pankaj Chaddah, co-founder of Zomato. “We are currently in talks with 4 other players. There are always a lot of moving parts so can’t put a timeline for the next one.”


TAGS: Zomato, Cibando, restaurant discovery service

 
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