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Zomato, present in 22 countries including the
United States, said MaplePOS, now "Zomato Base", would be a
database of customer details. It will also help restaurants with
menu and inventory management, and has a built-in payment
solution to accept debit and credit card payments.
"We are getting into table reservations and online ordering, so
you need a very strong hold into the tech that our users need,"
Chief Executive Deepinder Goyal told Reuters.
Goyal did not say how much Zomato paid for the purchase, but
said the company was rolling out a pilot for online ordering on
Tuesday and would expand it to all Indian users by next week.
The company will start its online ordering services with around
4,000 restaurant partners, aiming to take that to over 10,000 in
India eventually.
Zomato currently has 60,000 restaurant partners in India, the
company said.
The startup, valued at around $1 billion, has invested outside
India, buying U.S.-based rival Urbanspoon for about $50 million
in one of the biggest overseas deals by an Indian startup.
However, within India, the company has seen growing competition
from other global rival Foodpanda, which already offers online
ordering and payment options to users.
Foodpanda, backed by Rocket Internet, bought smaller rival
TastyKhana in November and raised $110 million in March.
Analysts say this has put pressure on Zomato to ensure users
stick to its app.
Goyal said the company was investing in technology to make sure
online transactions were glitch free by arming restaurants with
iPads so they could accept orders and do away with a call
center, which accounted for delays.
"About 40 percent of orders placed online currently don't reach
customers. We are making sure there is no glitch," Goyal said.
(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Mumbai; Editing by Clara
Ferreira Marques and David Evans)
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