Swiggy acquires Times Internet-backed Dineout

Food and grocery delivery company Swiggy has signed a definitive agreement with Times Internet to acquire restaurant table reservation platform Dineout. The move would make Swiggy a complete foodtech platform right from delivery to table booking. This also puts Swiggy directly in competition with Zomato’s table booking service Zomato Book which was launched last year after the company rebranded NexTable, a company it acquired many years ago.

Dineout will continue to operate as an independent app post the acquisition, said Swiggy in a press statement. This is the second major move made by Swiggy this year after leading a $180 million round in bike taxi firm Rapido.

According to Swiggy, it will double down on the synergies with Dineout’s offerings, including dining out table reservations and events. The acquisition will also help restaurants on Swiggy reach more customers.

Dineout was founded in 2012 by Ankit Mehrotra, Vivek Kapoor, Sahil Jain, and Nikhil Bakshi. In 2014, the company was acquired by Times Internet for $10 million. At present, it ensures table reservation across 50,000 restaurants in 20 cities.

This acquisition by the SoftBank-backed firm has been in the making for several months and has come at a time when Swiggy is drifting away from business verticals which aren’t sustainable. One such example is SuprDaily which rolled back its operations from five cities including Delhi (NCR) and Mumbai.

Entrackr was the first to report the roll-back on May 10.

Dineout reportedly held conversations with fintech unicorn CRED for acquisition but the talks didn’t result in a deal. Dineout is one of the few properties from which Times Internet has been looking to exit after the sale of MX TakaTak to ShareChat.

Its music streaming app Gaana is looking for a buyer whereas MensXP is also negotiating final terms from potential suitors: Good Glamm Group and Nykaa. Entrackr had exclusively reported the development on April 26.

This is the third investment for Swiggy in the ongoing calendar year. After Rapido, the Bengaluru-based company had recently joined its arch-rival Zomato to fund restaurant management platform UrbanPiper. Swiggy, until now, was focused on logistics: delivering food, groceries and personal packages. But the acquisition of Dineout is also indicative of its steps in the direction of improving the restaurant-going experience of its customers.