Barcelona-based Restalo, an online restaurant reservation service similar to OpenTable, has raised a $10 million Series B round from Seaya Ventures, and existing investor Active Venture Partners. Having previously raised $1.3 million in 2011, this takes the total funding to date to $11.3 million.
Claiming to be the leader in Italy and Spain where OpenTable has yet to operate, Restalo says it plans to use the new capital to consolidate its position in Southern Europe and to expand to new markets. Mobile applications will also be given a greater push.
Founded in 2009, Restalo offers real-time online restaurant reservations for diners, and a cloud-based reservation and guest management solution for restaurants. It claims 1 million active users, and 8,000 restaurants on its platform, as well as 200 partner sites, including brands such as TimeOut, and TripAdvisor.
So far, so OpenTable.
However, one differentiator is that, for the time being at least, Restalo appears to have gone where OpenTable has yet to tread, namely Spain and Italy. On that point, Seaya Ventures’ Michael Kleindl tells me the fact that OpenTable is not present in the markets Restalo operates or plans to operate made the Spanish startup an attractive investment — although, should that change, citing Restalo’s strong team and technology, he says they are happy to compete.
One market that would seem logical for Restalo to enter next — and I’m just speculating here — is Latin America, given the startup’s Spanish roots and ties to Seaya Ventures, who are known to be bullish on the region. However, were that to happen, along with OpenTable, they’d face another well financed competitor in the form of Restorando.
Update: Restalo founder Juan Otero tells me that in fact expanding to Australia is pegged by year’s end. And that in the next 12 months the startup will double the size of its team to over 200 employees. On competitor OpenTable, he says: “As for your question on how we plan to compete against Opentable, they aren’t yet in Spain or Italy. However as the leaders in our sector we believe it is a matter of time until they enter these markets. Also, our model is the same and we don´t rule out the option to move Restalo into other markets where they currently operate.”