Introduction and about the founders- bhavana

ZOMATO is a restaurant and lifestyle portal in India. It has two sections - Restaurant Guide and
Events.
The Restaurant Guide section currently serves Ten major cities in India Mumbai !elhi "#R
$ol%ata &an'alore (une #hennai )yderabad *hmedabad +aipur , #handi'arh. The website
currently lists over -.///
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restaurants and featured menus for restaurants listed on the website.
*s per recent press reports 2omato claims that it 'ets more than a million
031
customers on its
website.
The Events section on 2omato was introduced in 4eptember 3/--
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. This coincided with 2omato
announcement of raisin' their second round of fundin' of 56M from Info Ed'e India 7(8 9td
061
.
2omato.com was previously %nown as :oodiebay.com. The brand name was chan'ed due to a
possible move outside of the food vertical and also to avoid a future conflict with e&ay because
the earlier brand name :oodiebay contained ;ebay< in it.
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:oodiebay was started by !eepinder Goyal
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a 'raduate from IIT !elhi. The journey to the
present-day 2omato started as a small e?ercise to help his collea'ues ne'otiate hu'e stac%s of
menu cards with ease.
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It was in 3//. when he was wor%in' with &ain and #ompany a
mana'ement consultin' firm when he put all menu cards in his office on the internet.
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!eepinder<s juniors from colle'e (an%aj #haddah and Gunjan (atidar 7who are now #hief
@peratin' @fficer and #hief Technolo'y @fficer respectively8 joined him in buildin' the
database. 2omato officially started in +uly 3//. with a list of -3// restaurants in the !elhi "#R
re'ion. This database e?panded to 3/// restaurants by end 3//.. Aithin the ne?t si? months
$ol%ata
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and Mumbai
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re'ions were included on the website. In 3/-/ the website was named
amon'st the top 3> most promisin' internet companies in India by the 4martTechie Ma'aDine.
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&y +une 3/-/ the website bro%e even and had e?panded its reach to &an'alore and (une. That is
when Infoed'e the parent company of the "au%ri.com 'roup invested Rs =.C #rores 75-M8
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in
the business.
Recently 2omato has also launched its #hennai )yderabad and *hmedabad section and the
first local search i(hone *ndroid and &lac%&erry application in India.
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harikrishnan
Infoedge to invest 4.7 CR in FOODIEBAY
Foodiebay lists menus, !i"es and "onta"t details of !estau!ants and also offe!s
dis"ount "ouons to dinne!s, Infoedge said in a statement.
Foodiebay is "u!!ently !esent in five "ities of t#e "ount!y and lans to use t#is
investment fo! !odu"t develoment, ma!$eting and to fu!t#e! in"!ease t#ei!
geog!a#i" foot!int.
%&#e sa"e in '#i"# t#ey a!e oe!ating, #olds t!emendous otential as a vastly
s"alable business. (it# disosable in"omes on t#e !ise, and otions of many
"uisines) "onsume!s a!e in"!easingly loo$ing at e*lo!ing ne' food otions and
Foodiebay 'ill !ovide t#em a 'ide !ange of otions,% Info Edge +enio! ,- Co!o!ate
Develoment ,ive$ .#a!e said.
Info Edge o'ns and manages / 0au$!i.Com, 1eevansat#i.Com, 22a"!es.Com,
+#i$s#a.Com aa!t f!om 3uad!angle 4 an offline e*e"utive sea!"# fi!m and 0au$!i
5ulf. Info Edge also o'ns B!i66.Com, a !ofessional net'o!$ing site and
All"#e"$deals.Com, a !eal estate b!o$e!age fi!m.
%(e lan to use t#ese funds to s"ale ou! oe!ations and to develo t#e ne*t
gene!ation of 'eb, mobile and so"ial !odu"ts t#at 'ill e*"ite ou! use!s and also
!ovide uni7ue oo!tunities to t#e lo"al business o'ne!s,% Foodiebay Co/Founde!
and CEO Deeinde! 5oyal said
akash
Foodiebay Rebrands to Zomato
:oodiebay recently raised Rs. =.C #rores from InfoEd'e and the "#R based startup has
rebranded itself to 2omato.com.
The rebrandin' decision comes in the wa%e of company movin' beyond the ;food< cate'ory.
FAe plan to e?pand not only to more cities in India but to countries as well. 4tartin' ne?t year
we plan to 'o international in our
offerin's and it<s not just that we want to
offer you more than just restaurant
directory listin's. *s a product we want
to evolve into a recommendation en'ine that su''ests you the best places to order home delivery
from or to dine-out at. Ae are also plannin' to launch a ni'htlife section very soon. @verall the
Guestion we want to answer for you in the lon'er term is FAhere should I 'o todayHI
Ae saw that if we wanted to touch broader horiDons then the name F:oodiebayH wasn<t 'oin' to
be the best option since it mi'ht restrict our perception as just a food website. *nd ri'ht now was
the time to reflect deeply and thin% about what we should be christened as especially since we
are 'oin' to invest heavily in mar%etin' the brand. *nother thou'ht that was at the bac% of our
minds was to prevent any oversteppin' of ebay when we start acceptin' online payments. Given
these 'oals we put our heads to the 'rindstone and thou'ht a lot about it the last 3 wee%s. F
shruthi
Info Edge To Invest $3M More In Zomato
Zomato Investment
This is Info Ed'e<s second round of investment in 2omato. In *u'ust 3/-/ it had invested Rs
=.C crore 75- million8 in what was 2omato<s first round of fundin'. The capital was used to fund
the start-up<s product development sales and mar%etin' efforts. The fresh round of fundin' will
be used to ramp up its employee base and open more offices. )owever the promoters continue
to hold a majority share in the company.
F2omato.com is one of India<s fastest-'rowin' consumer Internet portals. The satisfaction levels
on both sides of the value chain 7consumer and merchant8 are very hi'h a testimony to the
'reat product made for the consumers and the value seen by the merchants. Ae see immense
potential in their current model in their future plans and in the capability of the team to e?ecute
it wellH said 4anjeev &hi%hchandani founder and e?ecutive vice-chairman of Info Ed'e.
How Zomato Has Scaed !"
@ver the past year the company has 'rown its reach from C/// restaurants in five cities to
-./// eateries across -/ cities Mumbai !elhi-"#R $ol%ata &an'alore (une #hennai
)yderabad *hmedabad +aipur and #handi'arh. #ompared to last year 2omato has seen a rise
in traffic from -.> la%h to over -/ la%h monthly visitors of which over one la%h are re'istered
users. In the first Guarter of the year it launched mobile apps and recently introduced an events
sub-site 2omato.comJEvents.
O"ening #ew Offices$ Hiring Saes %orce
:rom a team of 33 last year the company has now scaled up to .> people and it will reach 6//
by 4eptember this year. &y March 3/-3 it e?pects to have >// people on board accordin' to
!eepinder Goyal founder and #E@ of 2omato.com.
2omato is now rampin' up in a hurry addin' five employees per wee%. Most of the new hires
are primarily in sales as the company e?pands its operations to more cities. It has offices in
Gur'aon &an'alore and Mumbai and has recently set up operations in (une and )yderabad.
The company is also openin' offices in #handi'arh +aipur $ol%ata #hennai Goa $ochi 4urat
and Indore. This reflects a renewed focus on tier II cities and reachin' out to more towns instead
of its earlier strate'y of pursuin' international mar%ets.
E?plainin' the shift in strate'y Goyal said FAe had to ma%e a choice of either 'oin'
international or plun'in' into events in the local mar%et. Ae decided to capture events first and
continue to 'row locally. Ae will then ta%e the step of launchin' internationally.H
#ew %ocus Areas& Events$ Tic'eting
*ccordin' to Goyal 2omato is now a''ressively focusin' on its events section. Initially
launched to tar'et !elhi Mumbai and (une the events section will reach out to four more cities
by end of this month.
The start-up is also wor%in' on addin' online boo%in' features to its site. FAe are plannin' to
ma%e a discovery and tic%etin' platform for events and will also be wor%in' with partners to run
table reservations and online ordersH he added.
abraham
Updated: Zomato Adds An Events Section; Time To Get
Into Onine !ookin"s#
!"date& 2omato :ounder !eepinder Goyal informs that the company is wor%in' on an e-
commerce section which it intends to roll out before the end of this year.
@nline restaurant 'uide 2omato has introduced an Events section for the !elhiJ"#R re'ion. :or
starters it claims to list over 3>/ upcomin' events under various cate'ories such as arts ,
literature music , dance food , drin% entertainment ni'htlife tal%s , wor%shops fashion and
others. Ksers can discover events happenin' in the city by date cate'ory and %eywords and
view event details location , timin's pictures and also view similar events and restaurants near
by alon' with the event listin'. The Events home pa'e lists recommended events popular events
and the wee%<s events a'enda which lists out selected events for each day of the wee%. It intends
to e?tend the events section to Mumbai and &an'alore shortly.
The company says that the move is inline with its rebrandin' strate'y repositionin' 2omato as a
lifestyle brand from bein' a food-focussed brand :oodiebay.
Our Ta'e
&y introducin' an events section 2omato is now competin' with the li%es of &uDDInTown and
&urrp. Ahile these sites also allow users to add events as well as buy events tic%ets online
2omato is a bit cautious in its approach and curates events on its own even thou'h it does accept
reGuests to feature events via e-mail. It does not have an e-commerce en'ine inte'rated with the
site to offer tic%ets or restaurant boo%in's.
Ae feel that 2omato has one of the best user interfaces compared to other sites that have similar
offerin's. *lon' with the website it also offers native apps for all major smartphone platforms
and a mobile web version.
4ites li%e +ustEat and &oo%urtable are already offerin' restaurant boo%in's and online orders. It<s
a pity that 2omato which claims to have listin's for over -./// restaurants across -/ Indian
cities and more than -/ 9a%h monthly users - is hesitant to introduce e-commerce.
)owever we do li%e the fact that 2omato has been really vocal when it comes to tal%in' about
thin's li%e why it does not want to introduce an online food delivery service or why it<s 'oin'
slow on restaurant 'roup deals althou'h it has not dismissed them entirely and has said that Fit
will wait until it finds a sourcin' and distribution model which will %eep the unit economics low
and provide lon' term sustainable value to customers as well as businesses.H
If nothin' else it should consider a tie-up with either +ustEat or &oo%urtable to close that loop
for customers.
Zomato(com fora)s into onine tic'eting for events
"ew !elhi !ec. 3/L
@nline food and lifestyle 'uide 2omato.com has forayed into online tic%etin' for its ;eventsM
section startin' with "ew NearMs Eve parties for restaurants and hotels in !elhi Mumbai
&an'alore and (une.
The recently launched 2omato.com events section which lists over >// upcomin' events across
these four cities is 'oin' live with over -.C> la%h tic%ets for "ew NearMs Eve parties translatin'
to over Rs =/ crore of tic%et inventory online accordin' to a company statement.
Mr !eepinder Goyal :ounder and #E@ 2omato.com said FThe site caters to over 3 million
visitors every month throu'h its restaurant 'uide and it plans to cross-sell tic%ets to its own
audience to %eep customer acGuisition costs low. 4ince this is the first time 2omato.com has
forayed into tic%etin' 2omato has decided not to levy a convenience char'e to its customers.H
Tic%ets will be available for more than 6/ venues in each of the four cities O !elhi Mumbai
&an'alore and (une.