Restaurant discovery service Zomato buys Urbanspoon

The deal will allow Zomato to expand to the United States, Canada and Australia for the first time

Given how long everyone has been touting India's might as a tech ecosystem, is anyone really surprised by the number of big, global companies that have been coming out of there recently? 2014 in particular was a huge year for the country, and 2015 is shaping up to be a big year as well.

Indian restaurant discovery service Zomato has acquired restaurant information and recommendation service Urbanspoon from IAC, in an all-cash deal, it was announced on Monday. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed, but according to a source with ties to the companies, it was "the largest deal of its kind involving a U.S. consumer brand acquisition by an Indian startup."

Zomato allows users to find the restaurants nearby, giving users access to recommendations and reviews. The acquisition of Urbanspoon is just the latest purchase the company has made in the last six months, having already acquired six local restaurant search players in New Zealand, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and Turkey.

By buying Urbanspoon, Zomato will be able to enter the markets in United States, Australia and Canada for the first time, giving it a presence in 22 different countries. The deal will also double the company's Web traffic, giving it 80 million visits every month, up from the 35 million it has currently. And the deal will also triple the number of restaurants on the platform from 300,000 to over one million. 

"Urbanspoon has been a dominant player in the US, Canada and Australia for years now, and it’s a great business that’s been built on a solid foundation of exhaustive, rich local restaurant content. 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," Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal wrote in a blog post. 

Going forward, Urbanspoon will not retain its own brand. All Urbanspoon traffic will move to Zomato.com, and all Urbanspoon app users will be able to use the Zomato app. In short, the Urbanspoon brand will be gradually integrated into Zomato.

"Over the coming months, the Zomato and Urbanspoon teams will be working closely to integrate Urbanspoon’s listings, ratings, user accounts and more into the Zomato system," Urbanspoon wrote in its own blog post.

"We think this transition will be hugely beneficial to our current users as they will get to enjoy the beautiful design and usability of the Zomato website and mobile apps combined with the features they know, love, and expect from Urbanspoon."