Restaurant table reservation startup EazyDiner has scooped up fresh funds in new funding round. The round has infused $5.85 Mn (INR 41 Cr) in Series B round and was led by Denlow Investment Trust and Beenext.
Following this latest fundraising round, EazyDiner’s total fundraising amount has now almost surpassed $99.95 Mn (INR 70 Cr). The startup plans to use latest capital infusion to consolidate its pan Indian presence as well as for promoting its loyalty programme, EazyDiner Prime.
The company last raised funds in October 2017, raising nearly $4.5 Mn from DSG Consumer Partners and Saama Capital. It also counts cricket star Yuvraj Singh among its many high profile backers.
As of today, EazyDiner offers table reservations services in 11 cities across India and is also planning to make foray into Dubai market very soon. Besides, several reports are claiming that company is also planning to launch its services in five more cities over in next two months or so.
Steadily Increasing Presence of Restaurant Reservation Apps
Startups hailing from restaurant reservation space may not boost unicorn status or high valuations. To give an idea, EazyDiner is currently valued at only $39.99 Mn (INR 280 Cr). However, the low valuation numbers cannot hide the fact that today several restaurant reservation apps are gaining tractions in the market.
This can be easily attributed to increase in disposable income, growing urbanization and unprecedented growth in technology. But alongside these favorable factors there also exists many challenges, the most prominent being that most Indians are still not used to reserving restaurant tables.
The culture of reserving restaurant tables is still too alien for most Indians (unlike in the west). Fighting this bias and enabling cultural change won’t be too easy for the restaurant reservation industry.
Several analysts claim that emergence of food delivery services like Swiggy and Zomato has somewhat paved way for this cultural change. However, a complete cultural change will take its own sweet time, analysts add.
Meanwhile, EazyDiner has to gear up for increasing competition in the space. Especially because one of its main competitors Eatigo recently raised funds from its existing investor. Not to mention that a well-funded and branded player like Zomato is also one of the formidable players in this space.
Other well-known players that compete in this space are Dine-Out, Clicktable and EazyDiner.