Livebookings raises $12 million

Online restaurant reservation service seeing rapid growth in Europe

The London-based site provides restaurants with the tools they need to make reservations available through the Web.  Some of these include a real-time booking interface which users can integrate into their sites, and analytics and charts to manage table usage.  It also offers a network of partners including Bookatable.com and lastminute.com, helping to market signed up restaurants and increase table bookings.  

As for business model, these tools are no free service.  Livebookings starts its services at £49 a month and has 20,000 restaurants signed up.  The company states it has delivered 3 million diners this year equaling £90 million in estimated revenue for its restaurant customers.  

On top of that, the startup is seeing some success.  Niklas Eklund, CEO of Livebookings stated the company, "has grown aggressively since day one and we’re now at a point where we see a fantastic opportunity for further managed but rapid growth supported with further investment."  He further stated, "recent figures show the number of new restaurants now using online reservations has risen by 91% this summer compared to last."

In an online world, you'd figure it would be second nature to book reservations online.  I personally still use my phone because most of the time, sites like OpenTable never have the reservation time I am looking for.  I figure sometimes calling in, I can negotiate or convince the host desk to squeeze me in somehow.  Perhaps this is one of they many reasons Livebookings estimates only 7% of restaurants actually care to use online reservations.  

Livebookings plans to use the investment to expand its position in Europe and continue development of its network of partners.