Zomato acquires NexTable, Joins hand with Uber to deliver enhanced experience to diners
Zomato acquires NexTable, Joins hand with Uber to deliver enhanced experience to diners

Zomato, the restaurant search app, has acquired NexTable, an online table reservation platform based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Present in over 22 countries now, Zomato will soon include NexTable in its Book.

This news comes on the heels of Zomato's acquisition of the cloud-based restaurant POS product MaplePOS.

With the acquisition of both NexTable and MaplePOS, Zomato will now further its reach into restaurants, and add even more value to its existing offering.

Pankaj Chaddah, Co-Founder and COO, Zomato said, “We want to own the communication layer between restaurant businesses and customers. NexTable will add to this layer by bringing in the convenience of easy, online reservations for thousands of restaurants to our millions of users. NexTable will be a great addition to our existing product, and will add immense value to our efforts to make dining experiences even more enjoyable.”

NexTable enables customers to make restaurant reservations online in real time, and includes table management and marketing tools for restaurants. This news also closely follows Zomato's recent announcement of its foray into the online ordering industry.

Zomato has been focusing on creating a seamless in-app experience for customers, and has been working on moving beyond just restaurant search and discovery, into table reservations, online ordering, and in-app cashless payments.

Zomato has also been aggressively growing its product offering for restaurant businesses. Adding NexTable and MaplePOS into the fold now enables Zomato to offer POS solutions, table management and reservation system services to restaurant businesses. It already allows restaurant businesses to update their menus, deals and discounts on a real-time basis on Zomato.

“For any new table reservations product, no matter how good it is, it's very hard to get businesses to adopt the product at scale for two reasons. First, it is hard to scale a sales team without massive funding. Secondly, it is hard to sell the product if you don't have a significant consumer presence. Zomato solves both these issues for us, and we are excited to partner with them to realise the true potential of what we have built,” added TC DeSilva, Founder and CEO, Nextable.

The NexTable deal makes for a total of nine acquisitions in the past nine months for Zomato.

The largest of these was the acquisition of Urbanspoon, which Zomato acquired for $52M and marked its entry into the US, Australia and Canada. Zomato has also recently acquired dominant local restaurant search players in New Zealand, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey, and Italy.

Meanwhile, Zomato and Uber has also announced global tie-up to provide enhanced experience to diners.

This partnership has been rolled out to Zomato users in 27 cities across 13 countries; namely – India, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Indonesia, New Zealand, The Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Turkey, UAE, and the United States.

Zomato will bring the seamless Uber experience to the Zomato app, enabling users to book cabs to the restaurant they are planning to eat at. The feature has already been made available to Zomato users in London and South Africa, and will now be rolled out to users in these other key markets.

Adding to the same line, Chaddah commented, “We're constantly looking for ways to make every meal, for everyone, a great experience. This partnership makes eating out more convenient with the Zomato app connecting to Uber services seamlessly.”

“We are delighted to be expanding the scope of our partnership with Zomato. Across six continents, Uber allows riders to connect with their cities in new ways. Through this API integration, Zomato users in 13 countries will now be able to reach those hidden gems in their cities seamlessly and in style,” shared Eric Alexander, Head of Business, Asia.

Once a user has found a place to dine at or have drinks at using the Zomato app, a single tap on the Uber button on the restaurant page will allow one to find the nearest Uber.

In addition to seeing the estimated fare and how long it will take for the Uber to arrive, one will also be able to choose the Uber service that best suits one's need.

 
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