Spanish Restaurant Booking Startup Restalo Acquires Local Rival Restaurantes.com

Spanish restaurant booking startup Restalo, which is very similar to the much larger Open Table, has acquired local competitor Restaurantes.com to consolidate its leading position in Spain.

Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, though I’m hearing from sources that the acquisition price sits in the “mid single million euro” range, so up to €5 million.

If that it the case — and I’m chalking this up as nothing more than industry rumour — that could represent quite a chunk of the $10 million Series B Restalo raised from Seaya Ventures, and existing investor Active Venture Partners, back in late 2013. That said, this is likely largely if not an all-stock deal, with Restaurantes.com’s two founders and majority shareholders now having a significant stake in the newly merged entity.

The plan when Restalo closed that Series B was to expand to Australia, presumably because Open Table had yet to venture down under. However, best laid plans are just that and according to reports last year the Spanish startup shuttered its Australian office. My understanding is that after testing the market for 6 months, with little or no traction, the decision was made to bed down in Spain.

Which brings us back to today’s acquisition news. Post-acquisition, the two merged entities will operate under the Restaurantes.com brand with offices in Madrid and Barcelona. Antonio Fernández Ruiz and Jesús Alonso Gallo, the two founders of Restaurantes.com will join the new management team led by Pablo Pastega, current CEO of Restalo.

(Incidentally, previous Restalo CEO and co-founder Juan Otero left the startup last year for personal reasons and was replaced by ex-Rocket Internet manager Pastega.)

Meanwhile, I’m told that the merger of the two platforms makes Restaurantes.com the clear leader in Spain. It claims 6,000 partner restaurants across the country, and 1.2 million users who have reserved a table. Along with its consumer-facing restaurant booking app, the startup offers restaurants cloud-based inventory management software for €29 per month.