Zomato launches Zomato Book, a table reservation service for Dublin restaurants. Photo via Shutterstock
Zomato’s table reservation service, Zomato Book, is coming to Dublin as this fast-growing company tries to turn its fortunes around.
Zomato, an online restaurant discovery and social platform, has been live in Dublin for the past year, targeting the city’s food-lovers with its social features. Think Foursquare for foodies.
With Zomato Book, Zomato is leveraging technology from its recent acquisition, US start-up Nextable. This new service aims to bridge the gap between restaurants and diners, allowing users to reserve a table with those restaurants that join the programme.
Customers can also be notified once a table is available, or reminders can be sent an hour before a booking.
Zomato Book serves as a one-stop point-of-sale system in real time and the table management software will sync with any online reservations made, as well as bookings over the phone and walk-ins
Other features for restaurant managers include analytics, staff management and a CRM system.
Global staff cuts, but growth forecast in Dublin
Zomato was founded in 2008 in India and today employs more than 2,000 people across 22 countries.
The web and mobile platform provides information on 1.4m restaurants around the world, including menus, contact details, pictures, maps and user reviews.
In April this year, the company raised $60m, bringing its valuation to unicorn status at $1bn.
However, the Sequioa Capital-backed company recently reached the sobering point experienced by many rapid-growth start-ups, making the decision to cut 10pc of its staff globally – amounting to about 300 people.
It’s hoped that revenue-generating plans such as Zomato Book can turn the company’s fortunes around, and things look a bit more hopeful for the Irish branch of Zomato, which launched last November on the back of a €3m investment.
In line with many a multinational born-on-the-internet company, Zomato’s European headquarters is based in Dublin with 14 staff at present, and the company reportedly plans to grow to 30 staff over the next 12 months.
Table reservation image via Shutterstock
