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Zomato, the restaurant search and discovery app, announced today that it has raised USD 60 million in a fresh round of funding that is being led by Singapore investment company, Temasek with participation from existing investor Vy Capital and will use the investment to further grow its new business verticals. This takes Zomato’s total funding to ~USD 225 million – it comes from a close set of only four investors – Info Edge, Sequoia India, Vy Capital, and now Temasek.

Founded in 2008, Zomato is headquartered in India, and employs over 3000 people across 22 countries. Available on web and mobile, Zomato provides detailed restaurant information such as menus, contact details, pictures, geocoded maps, and user reviews, for 1.4 million restaurants. Zomato sees over 90 million visits across its web and mobile platforms every month.

Just last week, Zomato made strategic investments in Gurgaon-based Pickingo, and Mumbai-based Grab, both hyperlocal delivery players, to enable last-mile delivery for restaurants including dine-in-only restaurants that don’t otherwise deliver.

Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO of Zomato, said, “We will use this round to make investments in our new businesses such as online ordering, table reservations, point of sales, and our newly launched Whitelabel platform. With this round, and with some of our markets turning profitable recently, Zomato is well capitalised for at least two years. We are also stoked to have Temasek partner with us, and are looking forward to building one of the largest food-tech companies in the world.”

Earlier today, Zomato also announced the launch of its Whitelabel Platform (zomato.com/whitelabel) details here.

Press Release from Zomato*

Zomato goes full-stack food-tech; introduces Whitelabel platform for restaurantsEarlier today, Zomato announced the launch of its Whitelabel Platform (zomato.com/whitelabel), a full suite of technologies for restaurants to run their business on the internet. The key feature on the platform is the ability for restaurants to launch custom-branded native mobile apps to help them connect with and engage their customers, and operate at internet scale.

The food-tech segment has seen a lot of action over the last year. As per a Tracxn report published in December 2014, the food-tech segment has seen a total investment of USD 1.2 Billion in 2014 alone. While the dine-out and online ordering segments have seen a large chunk of this funding, internet-first restaurants have also seen their fair share of interest from investors.

Currently, most of the internet-first restaurants primarily function on a ‘no/own kitchen + own delivery + on-demand’ model. The industry is seeing early signs of this concept germinating in certain urban clusters. However, a vast majority of the industry is dominated by the unorganised sector of asset-heavy restaurants, and there is a huge untapped opportunity to get them online, build innovative services, and drive more delight to customers. Zomato’s introduction of White Label Apps aims to capture this opportunity. Zomato White Label Apps is a plug-and-play platform which will power a restaurant’s digital identity with ease, enabling restaurants to spend more time focusing on their core business of food, translating directly to better dining experiences for users.

Ashish Goel, Chief of Product & Design, Zomato said “While speaking with a lot of restaurant owners, we realised that most of them do not have an app or digital presence and they want to harness the power and distribution of the internet and mobile to grow their business. And that there is no one single service provider for restaurants which can give them the entire suite of technologies required to run an internet presence closely integrated with the operations of their business. We see this as an opportunity to have a larger impact on the food-tech ecosystem, as well as create a larger overlap between tech and food.”

Pankaj Chaddah, Co-Founder, Zomato said “We are excited about the pace of innovation at Zomato. The bigger picture is increasingly becoming clearer to us and we are hoping that in a few months, we will be able to solve a large part of the pain points that users as well as business face in the industry.”

Zomato White Label apps offer features such as targeted push notifications, real-time information and menu management, and marketing tools to merchants at their fingertips. The app is based on a subscription model that bundles Zomato’s existing restaurant management app – Zomato For Business – into each subscription for free. These White Label apps integrate seamlessly into all the ancillary services Zomato offers, such as Online Ordering, Table Reservations, in-app Cashless payments, and the upcoming Zomato Base (point of sales system).

Zomato White Label Apps have already caught the attention of some top restaurant brands. Summerhouse Cafe in New Delhi, Miyabi Sushi in Dubai, and Shizuku Ramen in Melbourne are amongst the first 100 restaurants that have already signed up in the last week.

The Zomato White Label Platform will be available to restaurants in all 22 countries Zomato is present in currently.

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About Zomato

Zomato is a restaurant search and discovery app, providing in-depth information for over 1.4 million restaurants across 22 countries. Zomato’s core content features include restaurant information such as scanned menus and photos, sourced by its massive feet-on-street team across cities it is present in globally. Users can rate and review restaurants, as well as create their own personal network of foodies for trusted recommendations.

In addition to restaurant search and discovery, Zomato has expanded its offering to include in-app Cashless Payments, Online Ordering,Table Reservations, and a Point-of-Sale system, creating cutting-edge technology to connect restaurant businesses and customers in ways that will revolutionize the restaurant industry.

Press Release from Zomato*