What is Dineout?
Catching up with friends, going to a nice restaurant and having some delicious dishes is one of the best things in life. We all love to have dinner at a good dine out after a tiring day, don’t we? The ambience of the place, sumptuous food and the entire experience can be very refreshing. However, more than often, we find ourselves going to the same place each time. Even if it gets boring, we refuse to look for other places due to the lack of resources. There might be a lot of amazing places around your neighbourhood which you are missing out on. So take that extra step and start searching for a new and unique spot with the help of Dineout.
Dineout (1) is an online table reservation platform which helps you find the best restaurants near you and effortlessly book a table. Dineout was founded in 2012 by Ankit Mehrotra, Nikhil Bakshi, Sahil Jain and Vivek Kapoor. Through these years, Dineout has made more improvements to the services that they offer. In addition to finding a good restaurant, Dineout provides many benefits that make any foodie fall in love with it. The clients of Dineout get special offers at more than 40,000 restaurants in the country.
Dineout connects the customers with the best cafes and restaurants in the city. They give you a cashless payment experience across eateries and a chance to gain cashback on each bill. Through such services, you can save up to 30 per cent more than the regular consumers at a restaurant. They also offer an exclusive membership scheme known as the Gourmet Passport, which gives enormous advantages for the genuine lovers of food. Through a single platform, Dineout is able to satisfy all your dining needs.
The beginning of Dineout
The idea of Dineout was born when the co-founders Ankit Mehrotra and Sahil Jain started a discussion on their dining options. They realised that their group of friends often went to the same restaurant every time. Even though they were tired of going to the same places, no one put in the effort to discover a new and interesting spot. They were settling in their comfort zone in fear of being disappointed. So they started talking about a website that could tell you all about the best dine-outs in town. Since such a platform did not already exist, they decided to create one.
OpenTable is a California-based company that helps out in table reservations. The team of Dineout wanted to make a similar contribution to their country. Even in the midst of various competitors, Dineout was able to achieve high success. Within two years of business, they had more than two lakh registered users on the platforms. They had collaborated with more than 459 restaurants, and the customers were incredibly delighted.
What makes Dineout stand apart from the rest of the competitors is that they have a good connection with the diners. As a result, the payments are convenient and hassle-free for both the parties. In 2012, Dineout closed an acquisition deal with TimesCity, which was valued at 10 million dollars. The acquisition took almost half a year to finalise. The team of Dineout started it off as an easygoing discussion between the two groups. By joining TimesCity, the users could not only find restaurants but also enjoy all other benefits during dining out.
The acquisition by TimesCity
It was during one of their casual discussions with TimesCity that the founders of Dineout were acquainted with Miten Sampat, the Business Head of TimesCity. Even from the very first meeting, they were exceptionally intrigued with Miten and his vision of contributing a complete assistance scheme from. Similarly, the success achieved by Dineout within a short amount of time had impressed the team of TimesCity. Dineout had built an innovative platform that empowered the customers to conserve time, cash, and get a unique ordeal each time they dined out.
The idea of acquisition started when Miten Sampat made a proposal to procure Dineout and unite the two companies. The founders of Dineout were amazed at this offer and stood to ponder upon the opportunity that it gave. They had a critical choice to make before them. Having such a significant phase in sales, the founders of Dineout were reluctant in the beginning to sell their company. They were torn between the options of sticking with their enterprise or collaborating with a larger one.
They soon realised that they could provide an all-encompassing platform for their customers through this deal. Finally, Dineout joined Times Internet in 2012. The acquisition by TimesCity helped Dineout to raise an institutional round of investment for additional development and further expansion. Moreover, it gave them a chance to unite with one of the most prominent online organisations in the nation and develop the business of Dineout quicker than they had ever anticipated.
Acquisitions and Collaborations
Dineout has collaborated with inResto, which is a one-stop CRM software which helps to provide personalised services to each customer. This deal enabled them to offer assistance in all aspects of the restaurant business. On November 27 2018, Dineout announced the acquisition deal of Torqus, which is a restaurant management software provider. By obtaining this Pune-based enterprise, Dineout has been able to enhance their services and strengthen their position in the field.
The securing of Torqus has additionally improved Dineout’s multitude of administrations to the restaurant business. The primary emphasis of Torqus is in areas like Point Of Sale (POS), Head Office and Supply Chain Management. POS programming takes broad consideration of the substantial number of functionalities of an eatery outlet, which spans from steward supervision to dynamic menu. The Head Office organises client information, oversees and tracks conveyance stages, SMS marketing etc. The Supply Chain Management provided by Torqus helps Dineout to take care of the inventory through improved logistics efficiently.
In August 2019, Dineout announced the acquisition of Binge Digital which is a FoodTech platform based in Noida, Delhi. This deal helped to enhance a new product launched by Dineout named Dine-In. Dine-In is a digital menu through which the users can view the list along with pictures on their phone. It employs Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence which brings table booking as well as the ordering of food to the tip of their fingers. The POS system allows restaurants to keep track of their clients and make personalised recommendations.
