Highly-funded Airbnb is making an investment of its own, announcing today that it is leading a $13 million round in Resy, an app for restaurant reservations.
“Helping people find and book incredible local restaurants is a key part of us moving beyond just accommodation to focus on the whole trip,” said Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky in a statement.
Airbnb will be integrating Resy into its own app in the coming months. The startups already partnered together on Trips, Airbnb’s effort to provide a more comprehensive travel experience.
Resy is also getting funding from First Data, Lerer Hippeau and Gary Vaynerchuk’s RSE Ventures, which incubated it.
“OpenTable was was ripe for disruption,” Vaynerchuk told TechCrunch. Now Resy is “growing up and exploding.”
New York-based Resy works with over 1000 restaurants in 50 cities, but it is still much smaller than OpenTable. The competitive landscape also includes Reserve and Yelp’s SeatMe.
CEO Ben Leventhal tells TechCrunch that Resy is different because “pricing is all feature based and we don’t charge restaurants per cover.” He added that “every feature we ship is built in close consultation with the restaurants we work with.”
Leventhal says that the funding will be used to expand to 20 additional markets this year and that they will also be investing in engineering and infrastructure.
Resy previously raised $2 million when it launched in 2014. Other investors include Slow Ventures and Ashton Kutcher’s A-Grade investments.
Airbnb has raised over $3 billion and is valued at $30 billion.