After UAE, Zomato expands into Sri Lanka; adds a Colombo section

Gurgaon-based DC Foodiebay Online Services Pvt Ltd, which owns the popular restaurant and event listing site Zomato, has expanded into Sri Lanka with the launch of a new section targeted at Colombo. The company had earlier forayed into the global market by adding a Dubai section.

The new section on the site currently features contact details, ratings, reviews, maps and photos of the dining facilities located in Colombo. Therefore, users know exactly what to expect when they opt for those restaurants. As of now, we can find around 597 city restaurants featured on the site.

IIT-Delhi alumni and ex-Bain employees Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah set up Zomato in July 2008. Initially, it only catered to Delhi-NCR, but has now expanded its services to 17 cities in India, UAE and Sri Lanka, listing over 49,500 restaurants. Besides Delhi-NCR, other cities on Zomato's map include Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore, Ludhiana, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Colombo. The site attracts more than 6.5 million users every month and the company has 150 people on board.

While its Dubai launch was the first foray into the global market, the company plans to grow across the South-east Asia and the Middle East.

The company has recently raised $2.3 million in its third round of funding from Info Edge (India) Ltd, which runs the recruitment site Naukri.com and other classifieds like the matrimonial site Jeevansathi.com and the real estate portal 99acres.com. The fresh investment was made through optionally convertible cumulative redeemable preference shares of Zomato Media. With the latest round, Info Edge's total investment into Zomato moved up to Rs 31.06 crore and its total holding rose to 48.5 per cent. Zomato had also raised two rounds of external funding from Info Edge "the first round in August 2010 and the second in September 2011.

The company has recently forayed into the print space as well, with a co-branded (and we guess, sponsored) Citibank Zomato Restaurant Guide 2012, for four cities – Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune. It also upgraded its mobile app for the Android and iOS platforms.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)