Zomato Acquires Turkey's Mekanist in All Cash Deal

Post this acquisition Zomato's restaurant coverage will increase from about 27,500 restaurants in Istanbul and Ankara to more than 50,000 restaurants across Turkey.

Commenting on the development, Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal, said: "Mekanist has established itself as one of the heavyweights in the online restaurant search and discovery space in Turkey. We're excited to be joining forces with them as we continue to grow in one of our most important markets."

On being asked how the company plans to raise funds for the acquisition Goyal told PTI: "We already had the money."

Mekanist is one of the earliest and most successful service player to emerge from the Turkish startup ecosystem, and we're excited about them becoming a part of Zomato, he added.

The two teams will be working closely over the coming months to integrate Mekanist into Zomato. All of Mekanist's traffic and restaurant-related content will move to Zomato, and Mekanist app users will be able to use the Zomato app, Zomato said.

"With the power of Zomato, we will now be able to offer dinners in Turkey in even wider range of restaurants to choose from," Mekanist Co-founder and CEO Ali Servet Eyuboglu said.

This is a big win for restaurant owners, as they will benefit hugely from Zomato's business-focused features, he added.

This is Zomato's seventh acquisition in the past six months, having acquired Urbanspoon for $52 million (roughly Rs. 319 crores) to enter the US and Australia markets only a couple of weeks ago.

Zomato recently also acquired local dominant restaurant search players in New Zealand, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Italy.