India’s VC-backed Zomato acquires US-based Urbanspoon

The purchase accounted for the bulk of Zomato's $60 million Series E round, which was provided by Vy Capital and existing backers Info Edge and Sequoia Capital in November 2014. Urbanspoon is expected to give the company a foothold in the US, Canada and Australia, as well as bolster its presence in the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland.

Set up in 2008, New Delhi-headquartered Zomato is an online and mobile-based service that offers information such as menus, directions, contact details, pictures, and user reviews for 331,200 restaurants. The service claims to have a presence in 130 cities and across 19 countries.

It has pursued organic and inorganic growth, with other recent acquisitions including the Czech Republic's Lunchtime.cz, Slovakia's Obedovat.sk, Poland's Gastronauci, and New Zealand's MenuMania.

Urbanspoon's website and app will be integrated into the Zomato platform over the next couple of months. "Everything they've done has been powered by a fantastic team that shares our vision and core values, and brings a wealth of local knowledge and expertise to the table," Deepinder Goyal, Zomato's founder and CEO, said in a statement.

The company received three rounds of investment from Info Edge, one of India's leading online classifieds providers, between 2010 and 2012. In November 2013 Sequoia came in with a commitment of INR1.7 billion ($27.6 million) and took an approximately 18% stake. Info Edge increased its investment at the same time.

The most recent round took the start-up's total funding to over $113 million and valued the business at a reported $660 million.

Urbanspoon was previously owned by IAC.

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