Dineout pilots differential menu pricing

Explorex, a startup focused on building a restaurant ecosystem, has hired Suneet Kulkarni as it’s Vice President for Business and Growth.

Kulkarni was previously the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Torqus and InResto, which was acquired by Dineout. This move is part of Explorex's plans to expand in the upcoming fiscal year of 2023-2024.

“I am thrilled to be a part of the Explorex team, which has always been committed to the larger goal of delivering the best to its partner restaurants by addressing the gap that exists in the restaurant industry. I look forward to new learnings and hope to build a deep, long-lasting collaboration that will benefit both our internal and external stakeholders.” said Suneet Kulkarni.

Suneet Kulkarni will be responsible for overseeing the growth of Explorex and ensuring top-notch customer experience as the new Vice President for Business and Growth.

He has a strong track record in the F&B industry, having previously headed sales, customer success, partnerships, and integrations at Inresto.

Prior to that, he co-founded Torqus and SmartOrder, where he managed sales and overall operations and expanded the reach of their products to national and international levels.

 “I am delighted to welcome Suneet as the Vice President of Business & Growth at Explorex. His extensive experience in the F&B domain will prove extremely beneficial to Explorex. We look forward to further strengthening Explorex’s footprint across markets in India with his efforts and expertise.” said Mr. Mainak Sarkar, Co-Founder & CEO, Explorex

Explorex is a full-stack solution provider in the restaurant industry, aiming to disrupt traditional models while also supporting business owners in achieving their goals.

The company is focused on empowering restaurants to excel in operations, finance, and customer experience, with the ultimate goal of redefining the restaurant industry. To date, Explorex has assisted over 350 restaurants in India.

Bengaluru-based food delivery platform Swiggy has announced the integration of Dineout offerings on Swiggy, making it available for all its users.

Millions of Swiggy users can now choose from tens of thousands of dining out options.

Customers can avail up to 40% uncapped discounts at 18,000+ restaurants across 24 cities. Users can get exclusive benefits and save an average of Rs. 600 on every transaction at the restaurant.

With the integration of Dineout, Swiggy became the only platform to offer exclusive discounts and savings on dining out, food delivery, groceries, sending packages & more to its users.

“With this integration, Dineout's offering will be more accessible than ever before and available to a larger Swiggy user base across the 24 cities. We are certain that our combined efforts will help create a seamless experience for all Swiggy users and significant savings on their dining-out expenses,” shared Ankit Mehrotra, Co-founder, Dineout.

Swiggy Dineout currently features  fine dining, lounge bars, pubs, cafes, quick service restaurants, and more. All users can avail up to 40% flat discounts on their dining bills and maximise their savings with an additional 15% off using their HDFC Bank Credit Cards at popular restaurants chains across the nation, from brands like Marriott, Leela, Mainland China, Punjab Grill , Farzi Cafe , Absolute Barbeque, Barista, Pizza Express, Biergarten among others.

This service is available across 24 cities including Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Indore, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Nagpur, Goa (North & South), Kochi, Surat, Agra, Udaipur, and Vadodara.

Swiggy India’s leading on-demand convenience platform has entered into a definitive agreement with Times Internet to acquire Dineout, India’s leading dining out and restaurant tech platform.

Dineout will continue to operate as an independent app post the acquisition.

Designed to capitalize on Dineout’s unique assets and leading position in the dining out space, the acquisition will enable Swiggy to cater to every food occasion.

Swiggy will double down on the synergies with Dineout’s offerings, including dining out table reservations and events. In time, restaurant partners will be able to reach more customers and grow their business.

“Dineout is a well-loved brand that enjoys loyalty from both consumers and restaurants. Times Internet and the founding team should be credited for the transformational impact they have brought about in the dining out experience through their products, technology and vast selection of restaurant partners,” said Sriharsha Majety, CEO, Swiggy.

Dineout brings with it an industry-leading network of over 50,000 restaurant partners along with invaluable experience and proven technology. Swiggy will benefit from this, along with Dineout’s team, who are passionate about the restaurant dining out category. Founders Ankit Mehrotra, Nikhil Bakshi, Sahil Jain and Vivek Kapoor will join Swiggy once the acquisition is completed.

“At Dineout, we always wanted to revolutionize the restaurant industry and this acquisition is an accelerating step towards the same goal. We strongly feel that with Swiggy’s deep understanding of the ecosystem and our shared passion for a superior consumer and restaurant experience, our joint forces will help provide a holistic platform in this industry,” added Ankit Mehrotra, Co-founder & CEO.

With a mission to offer unparalleled convenience, Swiggy today provides a range of services to better the lives of consumers. In the last 20 months, Swiggy has strengthened its food delivery business, expanded Instamart, its quick commerce grocery delivery to 28 cities, and Genie, its pick up and drop service to 68 cities. Customers are able to enjoy the benefits across its on-demand services through Swiggy’s comprehensive membership program ‘Swiggy One’.

inresto by Dineout has introduced an easy 5 step order process at The Walk, Worldmark Aerocity to enable a safe and contactless dining experience for their customers.

The contactless technology by inresto is designed to suit the needs of COVID-19 and offer diners peace of mind and confidence while stepping out to dine at their favourite restaurants.

Food courts are the most occupied places, housing multiple restaurants and a bigger seating area, The Walk, in Worldmark Aerocity, therefore, have created a seamless and contactless customer journey with the help of inresto technology.

As the diners reach their table and get seated, they find a QR code placed on the table instead of a paperback menu. What comes next is an easy 5 step order process.

a.) Scan: While seated in their favourite spot, diners can simply scan the QR code placed at the table using their phone camera or simply visit scan.qr.in

b.) Select: Next up, ‘The Walk’ restaurant collection pops up on the screen, showcasing an array of restaurants in the food court made possible by inresto’s digital menu

c.) Order: Once they select a restaurant, the digital menu is flashed on their phones from where they can choose their order items and proceed to the payment page

d.) Pay: After selecting all the order items, the diners make online payment through digital wallets like Dineout pay  

e.) Collect: Once their food is ready, they are notified via SMS following which they can collect their order from the designated pick up counter

‘The Walk’, has been able to turntables for their audience safety and has become an example of how food courts can get back to business post-COVID-19. Contactless Dining brings innovation to provide a finer, smarter & safer dining experience at both standalone restaurants and the food court at The Walk, Worldmark Aerocity. 

Dining out and restaurant tech platform, Dineout has launched yet another industry-first initiative to help Indian food-lovers savor their favorite dishes at home.

With an exclusive range of weekend masterclasses covering 20+ dishes across 8 cuisines, the brand is set to help foodies around the country upgrade their culinary skills from the convenience of their home.

Also Read: Dineout equips home bakers and chefs with digital menus and home delivery services

Hosted by widely acclaimed celebrity chefs like Suvir Saran, Saby Gorai, Tarun Sibal, Shri Bala, Surbhi Sehgal, Anagha Godbole, Nishant Choubey and Mohammad Eliyaz, these specially curated 2-4 hour long themed workshops such as ‘European Cuisine’, ‘Modern Classic’, ‘Mangalorean Cuisine’, ‘Street Food’, ‘Rustic ItalianCuisine’, & ‘Sinful Desserts’ among others are specially designed keeping in mind the average home kitchen and availability of ingredients.

Every participant would receive a list of ingredients & equipment well in advance so they can have an immersive first hand cooking lesson with the star chefs.

Additionally, a detailed step-by-step online guide would be shared with them at the end of the session for reference. Early Bird Tickets start at Rs. 999.

“With our newest online SteppinOut Cookbook series, ametuer home chefs would now have a go-to destination to learn how to cook elaborate four course meals from some of the biggest and most influential celebrity chefs in the country,” shared Ankit Mehrotra, Co-Founder & CEO – Dineout.

May Interest: Cloud-kitchen player Smart Chef partners with Franchise India, to expand via franchising

Dineout’s recently concluded Home Masterchef contest saw more than 10,000 participants upload over 60,000 home-cooked dishes & recipes. Both newbies & those with experienced hands joined in the mega cook-off to make the most of the opportunity and win exciting prizes every week.

Contrary to the age-old myth about Indian men neglecting culinary skills, more than 55% of participants were men, with a record number of chefs cooking up their favorite Dessert and non-veg recipes to enjoy their ‘made-at-home’ lockdown treats.

After a long wait for over 5 months, reports of dining in at restaurants in Maharashtra finally resuming in a month from now, is a welcome relief for the F&B industry. 

Over the last 5 months, Dineout encouraged users to stay home and dine out later and used that time to work with restaurants to make them #SafeToEatOut again once the lockdown restrictions were lifted. Dineout introduced Contactless Dining with QR codes and also partnered with Equinox Labs to provide hygiene certifications to enable #SafeToEatOut again!

Dineout’s campaign is also instrumental in building diner confidence by educating and creating awareness about the safety measures taken by partner restaurants. Users can see the certified restaurants on the Dineout App with their audit rating and make an informed decision. 

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08rGV-C5hMA

According to a recent report by Dineout, users are now considering restaurants with premium hygiene standards and safety tags. While they had Zero transactions during the lockdown, there is now a 4X traffic on partner restaurants with #SafeToEatOut tag as compared to restaurants without contactless technology and safety tags.

The data also reflects the adoption of QR code technology within the F&B industry for providing digital menu and digital payment solutions. Over 80% of the payments are done using digital modes instead of cash/card owing to safety and hygiene measures.

Dineout sees a sharp increase in restaurant reservations and transactions across the country. Delhi scores highest in terms of restaurant reservation volumes followed by Bangalore and Kolkata.

In Delhi, 86% of reservations were made for two with maximum reservations at Castle BBQ. Hyderabad saw families visiting restaurants with 65% of people reserving a table for 4 at Absolute Barbecues.

In Chandigarh and Kolkata, Pirates Of Grill and BBQ Nation witnessed the highest footfall respectively with 38% and 32% reservations when compared with pre-COVID numbers. 

58% of the business in the month of August was generated from Casual Dining restaurants followed by cafes and Quick Service Restaurants (QSR). Millennials were the flag-bearers of this growth with over 78% of diners between the age group of 18-35 years.

“Leading restaurants across the country are beginning to open doors past delivery & takeout. With #SafeToEatOut campaign we’re making sure that our users get premium hygiene and safety standards at the partner restaurants. Interestingly, more than 80% of people were making payments using Dineout Pay while checking out,” said Ankit Mehrotra, Co-Founder & CEO – Dineout.

Commenting on the same, Anjan Chatterjee, Founder, Chairman and MD, Speciality Restaurants Pvt Ltd, “Our restaurants have gone above and beyond to make sure that they are safe for diners. We have received a good response from guests coming back to our outlets for Dine in at Bangalore and Kolkata. We have implemented measures like distanced seating arrangements, demarcated waiting spots in queues and controlled diner inflow among others. With the help of technology and certified hygiene measures, we are looking forward to make dining experiences safe & memorable again.

The pandemic has led to a surge in demand for home-cooked food and a consequent rise in demand for food prepared by local home cooks/bakers.

Dineout’s B2B arm, ‘inresto'  will allow home cooks to share the digital menu link with their customers via the Order Food button on Instagram and Facebook profiles, Whatsapp and SMS allowing them to place orders in a few clicks.

Also Read: Restaurant-tech platform Dineout launches Takeaway services with restaurants

Customers can make the payment online and can also get food delivered at their doorstep using the link making the entire journey seamless for both, the home baker and the customer.

“We’re excited to serve diners with home-cooked meals with the convenience of doorstep deliveries through our order widget solution for home cooks/bakers. Our White Labelled solution will help Home Cooks connect with more customers without worrying about the logistics of delivery and payments,” shared Ankit Mehrotra, CEO & Co-founder, Dineout.

Once the customer places an order through the link provided by the home chef, the order confirmation is sent to respective home cooks on immediate basis and to the delivery executive to fulfill the order.

Customers receive the notifications via SMS and can track the delivery in real-time. For delivery, ‘inresto’ is integrated with logistics partners such as Dunzo and Shadowfax making home cooks self-sufficient and independent of aggregators.

May Interest: Dineout partners with AI-powered JARVIS to combat COVID-19 at Restaurants and Kitchens

Along with enabling delivery logistics for home cooks, order widget solutions from inresto also promotes ordering through Instagram and Facebook.

By adding a button on Instagram profile and stickers on stories, the widget allows home cooks and restaurants to get direct orders from Instagram and Facebook. The widget gives home bakers the opportunity to retarget their customer base through the data collected and helps them manage their economies better by saving on commissions. The order widget provides payment integration for Home Chefs by making the entire payment experience digital and hassle-free.

With the global pandemic altering our lifestyle and our eating out habits, restaurant tech platform, Dineout expands its services and has launched contactless ‘Takeaway’ on their app.

This will enable users to pre-order food and choose for safe self pick-up from their favorite restaurants to increase safety measures for their diners.

With an initial launch featuring over 5000 leading restaurants across Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Indore, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Nagpur and Vadodara, these services will be available in over 10,000 restaurants by September.

Also Read: India’s Top QSRs takes Takeaway, Delivery route to fight against Coronavirus

“With the introduction of contactless Takeaway services, our users can now enjoy food from their favorite restaurants in the safest way possible and also help our restaurant partners increase their offerings on the dineout app to stay relevant in these challenging times. Our goal is to make Dineout the go-to app for all dining occasions,” said Ankit Mehrotra, Co-Founder & CEO – Dineout.

80% of top delivery brands sign up for contactless takeaway services from Dineout, creating a new revenue channel for restaurants and an opportunity to grow profitably and sustain during this transition.

With contactless Takeaway, food-lovers get access to their favorite restaurants like Mamagoto, Farzi cafe, Cafe Delhi Heights, QLA, Havmor, The Deli, Byg Brewski Brewing Company, China Gate, Urban Tadka, Pop Tates, Empire Restaurant to name a few.

May Interest: Unlock 1.0: Over 10,000 Restaurants Sign Up For Dineout’s Contactless Dining Suite

Diners can also pick-up their food at specially created drive-thru windows or curbside at partner restaurants and malls for a safer contactless experience. These drive-thrus are live and available to experience at DLF Shopping malls in NCR region. To further ease availing offers at restaurants, Dineout users can now enjoy instant discounts of up to 25% of the total bill on bill payments using Dineout Pay.

Premium restaurants at ITC Maurya, Roseate House, Le Meridien, Four Seasons Bangalore, Andaz Hotel, Intercontinental Chennai, JW Marriott, Holiday Inn Chennai  & Leela Palace Bangalore & more are offering special 15% off offer on takeaways and home delivery exclusively to Gourmet Passport members, making it one of the best and most luxurious Takeaways/Delivery services in the country. Members can order food from these top restaurants using the Dineout app in the safest way possible.

Ankit Chona, founder of Havmor said, “With Dineout as our partner, we are working to improve the end to end customer experience with Takeaways because a lot of diners still are not very comfortable dining out. We are laying more focus towards food that travels well, that is value for money, fresh and delicious.”

Adding to the same, Devesh Rawat, GM, Marriott Hotel Indore said, "Takeaway has become a significant part of our F&B portfolio in times like this when dine-in services are completely shut. It is a new revenue stream that contributes 25 to 30% of our overall revenue and with Dineout partnership we expect it to go up further."

DLF Shopping Malls, the country’s largest physical marketplace has partnered with Inresto to create a contactless dining experience at restaurants and food courts across its malls.

Starting with DLF Promenade, the service will also be available at DLF Cyberhub, Horizon Plaza, DLF 5 and DLF Mall of India in the coming time.

The digital technology will empower restaurants and food courts within DLF Shopping Malls to offer a seamless customer journey and a safe dining experience.

“As we start re-opening our malls, our utmost priority is to provide a secure environment for our guests. So, we have partnered with Dineout’s inresto technology for enabling a contactless F&B service. We want to offer an unparalleled experience to our customers which is driven by technology innovation and making their visits enjoyable without compromising on safety and hygiene,” shared Pushpa Bector, Executive Director, DLF Shopping Malls.

With convenience features like digital menus, pre-ordering, table booking, digital payments and digital feedback. Thereby, minimizing the chances of touching common areas by our guests.

This technology will help food courts and restaurants in the mall to reduce the wait time to the minimum.  It will also enable restaurants to manage their operations at a capacity (as per social distancing norms) through its table management software.

For DLF Shopping Malls safety and well-being of consumers are the top concern and Contactless Dining is the first step in that direction for making diner’s experience safe and convenient.

Through DLF Malls Lukout app or by scanning the QR code our customers will be able to:

●        Browse through digital menus on their phones. It will ensure more safety and zero surface contact.

●        Reserve tables at restaurants. It will improve social distancing.

●        Pre-order their meals thereby cutting the wait time at restaurants and food courts.  

●        Check the hygiene and safety measures and rating of the outlet for assurance of safety.

●        Give feedback to restaurants so that they can dial up their service.

●        Earn loyalty points digitally for their frequent visits.

Customers looking for takeaways can simply pre-order the dishes, grab the items from the counter and check out by making contactless payments through their smartphones. Thus, making the entire in-mall experience seamless and contact-free, as much as possible.

“The post COVID era would see significant changes in malls from an operations perspective to comply with safe distancing measures within the mall. With our partnership, we are embarking our entry into retail space with inresto technology which will not only help in adjusting to the new demands but also managing the crowd and maintaining the social distancing within the food courts and in restaurants,” added Ankit Mehrotra, Co-founder & CEO, Dineout.

Restaurants within the DLF Shopping Malls portfolio will be integrated with AI-powered video solutions from Staqu which will render specialised analytics on restaurant operations and bring the live feed to the diners helping them monitor safety parameters in the kitchen. 

A live stream of the kitchen proceedings will also be available to the end customer on the Dineout app and assure them of the hygiene compliance and sanitization standards. This will help reinforce consumer confidence, thereby increasing quality footfalls to the restaurants.

Phoenix Mills Limited has joined hands with restaurant tech platform - Dineout, to create a contactless dining experience at restaurants and food courts across its malls in India.

This partnership is powered by Dineout’s B2B tech solution - inresto, which will enable restaurants and food courts within Phoenix Malls in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Lucknow, Chennai and Bangalore with its end to end tech suite starting from pre-ordering, digital menu, digital payments to digital feedback.

The contactless technology from Dineout will redefine the dining experience within the mall digitally with just one-click and reduce the wait time and help maintain social distancing. It will also enable restaurants to manage their operations at 50 percent capacity through its table management software. On the customer front it will allow them to do:

●       To reserve a slot at the restaurants.

●  Pre-order their meals and to place the second round of orders, thereby cutting the wait time at the restaurant/food court. 

●       Allows diners to check the hygiene and safety measures and rating for the outlet

●       Allows them to give feedback to their restaurant

●       Allows them to earn loyalty points digitally

Shoppers looking for takeaways can simply pre-order the dishes, grab the items from the counter and check out by paying digitally through their smartphone. Making the entire in-mall experience seamless and contact-free.

“This partnership allows us to extend our contactless technology to malls and caters to the retail customers enabling #SafeToEatOut within the malls. Now shoppers at Phoenix mall can experience the minimum contact dining experience at the food court and restaurants with just one click on their smartphone,” said Ankit Mehrotra, CEO & Co-founder, Dineout. 

Besides offering the country’s first end-to-end contactless dining suite, Dineout also offers Restaurant Safety Kits and is facilitating hygiene certification for restaurants through a licensed lab to ensure restaurants clear the necessary hygiene benchmarks before resuming services.

Diners can view certified restaurants and their respective audit ratings on the Dineout App, and therefore make informed decisions. and be assured of the safety and hygiene standards, which will help regain consumer confidence in a post-COVID world.

"We are ready to welcome shoppers across all our properties in India with adherence to safety standards issued by the government. Customer safety is the prime importance to us and with the Dineout’s inresto restaurant tech, we're sure to win the confidence of shoppers again. Contactless dining suite will help us in reducing the unnecessary contacts at the food court and restaurants within the mall offering complete peace of mind and convenience to the shoppers,” added Rajendra Kalkar, President, The Phoenix Mills Limited.

Dineout has partnered with India’s largest video AI implementation company, Staqu to assist partner restaurants maintain social distancing norms as India’s food services industry opens its doors for the customers.

Under this association, Staqu will extend its AI-powered COVID-19 combat suite to Dineout partner restaurants to render specialised analytics on restaurant operations and bring the live feed to the diners helping them monitor safety parameters in the kitchen.

“The COVID-19 outbreak has severely compromised industries with Food and Beverage sector one of the worst-hit. Integrating JARVIS in Dineout’s existing framework will help restaurants and food aggregators safely navigate through the crisis and win customers back as business turns a new leafs in the unlock,” said Atul Rai, Co-Founder & CEO of Staqu.

Staqu proprietary video analytics platform JARVIS (Joint AI Research for Video Instances and Streams) will be integrated with cameras installed at the partner kitchens of Dineout.

This will help exercise the necessary supervision over the safety regulations undertaken, and ensure that all precautionary measures are being implemented by the staff. Violations will also be duly notified, prompting the management to take immediate action by tracking the suspect.

A live stream of the kitchen proceedings will also be available to the end customer to assure them of the hygiene compliance and sanitization standards. This will help reinforce consumer confidence, thereby increasing footfalls to the restaurants. The dining areas will be monitored for Hand wash, Mopping/Cleaning, social distancing, crowding, mask compliance and contact tracing.

“Today, people are apprehensive to visit food joints or enjoy their favorite cuisine due to the fear of contracting the virus. We need a tech-driven solution to eliminate this reluctance among the customers. While our contactless services have helped users order and relish delicacies through zero to minimal human intervention, we also need to address the curiosity regarding back-stage operations,” said Ankit Mehrotra, Co-founder and CEO, Dineout who believed that this partnership will play an instrumental role in reviving customer confidence by assuring them of hygiene compliance not only in dining areas but the kitchens as well.

The COVID-19 combat suite by Staqu includes COVID-19 identification, Suspect Tracing, PPE monitoring, Security, Safety and Hygiene Analytics, and People Analytics. Leveraging its advanced video solution JARVIS, Staqu aims to empower new-age corporates to uphold optimum safety standards and ensure the well-being of their internal and external stakeholders when trade and commerce switch back to business as usual after the lockdown is reversed.

As part of its pan-India expansion, Dineout is venturing into several tier-2 cities in the country. Dining out and restaurant technology solutions platform is also strengthening its international presence.

The company is catering to four million diners a month through 40,000 restaurants in 20 cities.

Dineout operates in overseas markets like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Kenya. It is live in these countries with B2B software with plans to launch B2C software soon.

The firm is foraying into strategic partnerships in global markets with local partners.

Ankit Mehrotra, CEO & Co-Founder, Dineout, said, “We have emerged today as the largest F&B tech support system in India. Through the B2B channel, we are processing about six million diners a month. And overall, we are seating about 10 million diners every month and this number is set to grow. We are not only catering to consumers, but also large corporates across banking, financial institutions, consulting, and other verticals.”

Offerings by Dineout

Dineout raised $50 million so far. It offers B2B and B2C services that include Dineout Pay, Gourmet Passport, Torqus POS and InResto.

The Noida-based food-tech company provides solutions to 10,000 restaurant partners through its software as a service (SaaS) platform, providing 10 software modules such as customer relationship management, billing, supply chain and feedback management.

Through its B2C vertical, Dineout last year catered to 40 million diners resulting in cumulative savings of $200 million to them.

“We have partnered with OYO and are working with aggregators such as MakeMyTrip and Goibibo. We have made acquisitions in the B2B space and are building in-depth consumer profiles on our platform. We are working with restaurants using millions of data points to help them create menus intelligently with the help of machine learning, and recommend consumers with interesting combos with the help of artificial intelligence,” Mehrotra added.

Dineout has partnered with Google to enhance the user experience by adding more features to its navigation engine, Google Maps, with the help of technology powered by Dineout.

Through the ‘Offers’ shortcut on Google maps, users will now have more actions to explore within Google Maps by discovering dining out options near them, choosing from the available offers at restaurants and further reserve a table for their preferred time and date.

The new service can be leveraged by Google Maps users across more than 15,000 Dineout partner restaurants in 17 cities.

Ankit Mehrotra, CEO & Co-Founder, Dineout, said, “Our association with Google Maps is a milestone for us and brings us one step closer to providing seamless dining out experience along with empowering restaurants to be tech-enabled in India. With their help, we are co-creating an ecosystem that will help two of our biggest stakeholders- consumers and restaurants at multiple levels.”

“Understanding the demand of visual representation and easy accessibility, we plan to offer a seamless, more convenient and enjoyable experience to our consumers. Keeping our stakeholders at the forefront of this partnership, we plan to integrate this seamlessly into Google Maps on desktop and mobile,” he added.

Chandu Thota, Director of Google Maps, stated, “At Google Maps, we're working hard to help everyone explore their world. Two months ago we launched 'Offers', an India-first feature to help people discover local deals. Today, we'd like to welcome Dineout to this experience, which will offer even more choices for diners and merchants alike.”

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Dineout, India’s largest dining out and restaurant tech solutions company, has launched its integrated digital video campaign #FearNoBill to promote its in-app payments feature, Dineout Pay. The launch campaign follows the brand’s mission statement to the existing and potential customers about Dineout’s great promise towards ease in paying bills.

Dineout enables foodies to go on a gastronomic journey through its various features like restaurant discovery, table reservations, offers and cashback earnings using the payments feature of the app, Dineout Pay.

Ankit Mehrotra, Co-Founder and CEO, Dineout, said, “At Dineout, we have always ensured that our services cater to the evolving needs of our customers. We are very excited and optimistic to embark this partnership with Jim Sarbh for our campaign #FearNoBill, which is built on sharp consumer insights and their relationship with the product. The film breaks the clutter and meaningfully engages with the audience highlighting our philosophy. Jim's on-screen presence, quirky charm and acting skills mean that he’s perfect for the role of Bill and adds spark to the character who we’re supposed to empathize with and yet fear at the same time. We are confident that our audience will love this advertisement and we will see a tremendous organic boost by this campaign.”

Jim Sarbh stated, “I am glad to be a part of Dineout’s digital campaign #FearNoBill and thoroughly enjoyed my time shooting with the team. I loved the concept and especially liked working with the Director and the DoP, real funny and clear guys.  I guess the bill can be pretty scary. It is cool to see how Dineout, through its endeavors, is tackling that issue.”

Dineout, the Noida-based dining out and table reservation platform, has acquired a Delhi-based food tech platform Binge Digital.

Binge Digital helps restaurants upsell and increase ticket size with the help of analytics and video menus to their diners. In addition to this, the platform offers in-depth information about the menu at restaurants in addition to restaurant discovery services.

This is the Noida-based company’s fourth acquisition after inResto, Gourmet Passport and Torqus.

This acquisition is in line with Dineout’s latest product announcement Dine-In, which is a digital menu product that enables variable and dynamic pricing for the restaurant industry utilizing data analytics and artificial intelligence. Dine-In allows customers to view digital menus with images directly on their phone and to place an order with just a tap.

Ankit Mehrotra, CEO & Co-founder, Dineout, said, “As a Restaurant technology solutions platform, we are constantly working towards innovating and evolving our portfolio of services. We are happy and excited to announce the acquisition of Binge Digital which through its cutting-edge technology will enable us to bolster our product portfolio, especially Dine-In. With a proven record of their services for their partners through their video menus,  this integration will add an edge to our product.”

Prakhar Agarwal, Co-Founder of Binge Digital, stated, “We believe in creating cutting-edge technology to connect restaurant businesses and customers in ways that will revolutionize the restaurant industry. The same commitment was echoed by Dineout team and we are happy to be a part of India’s largest dining out and technology solutions platform.”

“Our digital video menu showcase has helped our partner brands increase the sales of their lowest selling product by 25%. Our integration with Dine-In will be a revolutionary step in the food industry which will offer a pleasing experience to consumers and will help restaurants up their game,” he added.

Currently, Binge is operational at 90 outlets across New Delhi. 

Dineout, India’s largest dining out and restaurant tech platform, has expanded its operations to Kochi, Kerala. The company has launched its services in the city after seven years of operations in India.

With this launch, Dineout is planning to offer a unique blend of restaurant discounts and cashback to its users in Kochi. The app provides various features like restaurant discovery, table reservations and cashback earnings every time the diners use its payments feature ‘Dineout Pay’. 

The restaurant tech platform has partnered with more than 165 restaurants and hotel chains in the city, including Taj Malabar Resort & Spa, Radisson Blu, Ramada Resort and Spa, Trident Kochi, Novotel Hotel and Paragon Marriott.

Ankit Mehrotra, CEO and Co-Founder, Dineout, said, “We aim to tap into the mini-metros and offer a hassle-free, unique and distinctive experience to our diners. We are extremely excited to venture into Kochi, the spice capital with great coastal cuisines.”

“We are ardent to transform and simplify the way people dine out and what better way than the Great Indian Restaurant Festival to launch with. We’ve raised the bar this edition by adding more cities, more restaurants and more partners like HDFC, Jet Privilege, Jio and Diageo,” he added.

India's largest dining out and restaurant tech solutions company, Dineout, recently launched its integrated digital video campaign #FearNoBill to promote its in-app payments feature - Dineout Pay. The video stars the eccentrically talented Bollywood actor, from Made in Heaven fame - Jim Sarbh. The launch campaign follows brand's mission statement to the existing and potential customers about Dineout's great promise towards ease in paying bills. 

The campaign 'Fear No Bill' revolves around the metaphor - 'Bill' which is brought to life by Jim.  The film showcases how the glorious and powerful days of bill are over and he is now disturbed by the various Dineout Pay cashbacks and deals available on the app. These cashbacks has now become a source of pain for the Bill, as diners are no longer afraid of him digging a hole in their pockets. The film lives and dies on how compellingly the cashback scenario has been brought out, making Jim's character more relatable for the audience. 
India's largest Dining out platform, Dineout enables foodies to go on a gastronomic journey through its various features like restaurant discovery, table reservations, offers and cashback earnings using the payments feature of the app - Dineout Pay. 

Commenting at the launch of the new digital campaign, Mr.Ankit Mehrotra, Co-founder and CEO, Dineout said, "At Dineout, we have always ensured that our services cater to the evolving needs of our customers. We are very excited and optimistic to embark this partnership with Jim Sarbh for our campaign #FearNoBill, which is built on sharp consumer insights and their relationship with the product. The film breaks the clutter and meaningfully engages with the audience highlighting our philosophy. Jim's on-screen presence, quirky charm and acting skills mean that he's perfect for the role of Bill and adds spark to the character who we're supposed to empathize with and yet fear at the same time. We are confident that our audience will love this advertisement and we will see a tremendous organic boost by this campaign". 

Speaking on this association with Dineout, Jim Sarbh said, "I am glad to be a part of Dineout's digital campaign #FearNoBill and thoroughly enjoyed my time shooting with the team. I loved the concept and especially liked working with the Director and the DoP, real funny and clear guys.  I guess the bill can be pretty scary. It is cool to see how Dineout, through its endeavors, is tackling that issue."

Conceptualized by Animal the campaign aims to create awareness around the brand's strong connect with the customers who are looking for great deals and offers on their bill. Commenting on the same Sayantan Choudhury, Senior Partner - Animal said, "The #FearNoBill concept is a call-to-arms-and the brand's mission statement-to existing and potential customers about Dineout's greatest promise: every time you go out to eat, we take care of the bill. So we thought of this character of 'bill' - a devilish, slightly psychotic person who is ranting at what Dineout has done to him. Thankfully, the folks over at Dineout loved the idea and gave us all the creative freedom to work on it. And then, of course, Jim Sabh did the rest."

Dineout will launch ‘Dinein’ to expand its B2B solutions portfolio for food business operators.

Dinein is a digital menu solution which supports variable and dynamic pricing. It is an extension to Dineout’s existing CRM (inResto) and POS (Torqus) solutions, which help restaurants drive revenue by recognising the customer and thereby offering customised and personalised services.  

Ankit Mehrotra, Co-Founder & CEO, Dineout, said, “The entire menu will be presented in a visually appealing way with pictures of the food.  In the printed menu, the scope for innovation is nil. Since it is AI driven, customers would be able to know how many people ordered a particular food and their recommendations on the suitable pairing of drinks, beverages, etc.”

“It will also help restaurants to push high margin items, run discounts, etc. real time. We have started rolling out Dinein. There is a lot of demand from international markets where labour is quite expensive,” he added.

Mehrotra further stated, “Today, there are around 8,000 restaurants in India and around 500 restaurants outside which use our B2B products.  The entire product has nine to 10 modules and restaurants can select according to their requirement. It is a pure SaaS play, they can pay based on the module they choose.”

Dineout, India’s largest dining out and restaurant tech platform, is eyeing to expand its presence in India and international markets.

The company has recently expanded Saudi Arabia and East Africa. Now, it is operating in five countries across Asia and Africa including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia & East Africa.

Dineout further looks to enter Indonesia and the Philippines in the future.

Ankit Mehrotra, Founder and CEO, Dineout, "We have seen great acceptance for our restaurant tech product across several key international markets including Asia and Africa, and are currently focused on introducing our integrated restaurant management offerings to many more in the coming months. Our goal is to build the first truly globally scalable food tech product out of India."

"Given the global food tech market is set to exceed $250 billion by 2022, global expansion is no longer an afterthought for firms that operate at a scale like ours. Discovering new markets has helped us continuously innovate to improve the dining experiences of food lovers from varied cultures across the world," he added.

In India, the company plans to expand to smaller towns and cities such as Lucknow, Indore and Surat. Currently, the service is available in 11 cities across the country.

Dineout, a restaurant table reservation service company, is planning to expand to nine more cities by the end of 2019. Currently, it provides table reservation across 11 Indian cities.

Founded by Ankit Mehrotra, Vivek Kapoor, Nikhil Bakshi and Sahil Jain in 2012, Dineout was acquired by TimesCity, part of Times Internet Limited (TIL) in 2014.

Presently, the company offers multiple B2B and B2C products.

Ankit Mehrotra, Founder of Dineout, said, “It's exciting times at Dineout. We recently hosted our 3rd and largest yet edition of The Great Indian Restaurant Festival that brought over 6,000 restaurants on a single platform to offer a flat 50 percent discount to our users throughout February and served more than 2.5 million diners. We are investing heavily in Dineout Pay, our Restaurant Bill Payment Feature this year. Currently, Dineout Pay is live at more than 10,000 restaurants across 11 Indian cities. We are live in 11 Indian cities and plan to launch 9 more this year.”

“We have 35,000+ restaurant partners listed on our platform. Table reservations are live at more than 8,000 restaurants and bill payments are enabled at more than 10,000 restaurants across India. Over the next 3 months, we will host some of the most exciting promotions during the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) & Cricket World Cup under Predict & Win, where our users will be able to predict match results and win Dineout Earnings,” he added.

Dineout, an online restaurant reservation platform owned by Times Internet Ltd, has acquired Pune-based Torqus, a leading SaaS-based restaurant management software provider.

With this acquisition, Dineout will expand its services and strengthen its position as a full stack technology service provider in the restaurant domain.

After the acquisition, the Torqus team will join Dineout and it will continue to operate as an independent business. 

Ankit Mehrotra, Co-Founder & Business Head, Dineout said, "The food industry is thriving with innovations and we are excited to announce the acquisition of Torqus. While most of the innovations have been taking place in the aggregation and delivery space, Dineout and Torqus, combined, will enable us to tap the immense possibilities in the restaurant market."

Tanmay Ratnaparkhe, Co-Founder and CEO of Torqus, stated, "We are excited to join Dineout as together we can deliver the best end to end experience to restaurateurs - from generating new business to managing backend operations."

Adurcup, a BW ACCELERATE batch 1 startup from Delhi raised its first round of funding from the founders of Dineout.

AdUrCup is essentially a procurement application for Quick service restaurants-QSR. As an extension to procurement, it enables advertising on such inventory thus converting a cost center for QSR businesses, disposables, which accounts from a 5% to 12% of the bill value, into an asset. In US demand for foodservice disposables is forecast to climb 3.6 percent per year to $19.7 billion in 2017.

For advertisers this works as a mechanics to deliver a hyper local personalized advertising campaigns to customers while they eat their favorite meal, or sip a preferred beverage. As a market, OOH in India is pegged to be at INR 25 Billion, and experts suggest it to be a much bigger play vis a vis the mentioned numbers, as this is a deeply unregulated and fragmented industry.

Globally total OOH advertising revenue stood at US$36.32bn in 2014 and is set to grow at a 4.6% CAGR to reach US$45.37bn in 2019. Some of the experts further go on to suggest that applications with sharp ROI within this space will clearly have a higher absorption rate amid brands and advertisers.

Currently, operating in Delhi-NCR, this startup has acquired over 200+ QSR’s, large food delivery players, and travel food services providers, they are working to scale this model to other cities. Kushang and Abhishek, Co-Founder, AdUrCup, substantiate by saying- we are geared to expand our operations and acquisition across two of the major cities, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad across the next 2 months. These are exciting markets with a very strong trend of eating out.     

On the advertising side, they have acquired some of the major brands, and are helping them design incisive solutions.   

The first round of investment in AdUrCup has come from the founders of Dineout, a startup which was recently acquired by Times Internet. Ankit Mehrotra, Sahil, Vivek, and Nikhil have invested in their personal capacity.

They also are part of the mentor panel at ACCELERATE, and have mentored this startups along with other senior professionals from Advertising industry and Technology major. 

AdUrCup, is part of ACCELERATE | ENTREPRENEUR, a business acceleration initiative by BW ACCELERATE, with very strong emphasis on the industry leader participation, mentorship & business access. At ACCELERATE, AdUrCup benefitted tremendously and improved from being an idea stage startup to reaching a point of sharp business longevity and reflection.

Ankit Mehrotra, co-founder of Dineout, commented saying “ Adurcup is an automated hyperlocal advertising tool! They are creating a 1st of its kind offline ad network already reaching more than 25,000 consumers per day across Delhi NCR and more than 5,000 consumers per day on trains. They are connecting the brand to the consumer at a fraction of the cost incurred through the digital platforms, and at a, moment when the consumer has spare time. This represents an exciting opportunity for brands to interact directly with their customers. “

Ashu Agrawal, Director, BW ACCELERATE added, saying “We are excited to see the progress AdUrCup has made. We believed in them and have faith, with right kind of mentors ACCELERATE has brought onboard, will serve as a strong foundation to this startup.”

He further added, it will be lovely to see this team-AdUrCup, expand into other cities soon.”

Founded on campus in January 2015, this startup by a driven team from IIT Kanpur is clearly working to make a significant impact on how this industry works.

Dineout, India’s premier table reservation platform has acquired Bengaluru-based inResto Services Pvt Ltd.

The acquisition enables Dineout to provide an end-to-end solution in restaurant management; making it the only open platform for restaurants to connect with various services across the food-tech ecosystem.

“Our endeavour is to provide a holistic solution for restaurateurs for their Guest Management goals. With this acquisition, we will enable them with a one-stop-solution to the challenges of getting to know their customers better, easing the process of table management, attending to feedback, marketing special offers and a cloud based CRM platform that is very easy to manage.” shared, Ankit Mehrotra, Co-Founder, Dineout.

Inresto by Dineout, as the product will be marketed, will ensure that restaurants get one dashboard to manage everything from table reservations, home delivery, takeaways, customer feedback, mobile payments, and loyalty programs.

Speaking on the occasion Vijayan Parthasarathy, Founder & CEO, inResto said, “inResto is an innovative application with a tremendous track record: In just 6months we seated over 1 million restaurant visitors in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. We are extremely excitedto join the mission of Dineout, and together we will enable thousands of restaurants become smarter and more efficient with the Inresto platform.”

Post this acquisition; the entire team of inRestowill join the Dineout team in Bengaluru.

About Dineout

Dineout was founded in 2012 by school-friends turned fellow-entrepreneurs Vivek Kapoor, Ankit Mehrotra, Sahil Jain and Nikhil Bakshi. Dineout is India’s premier table reservation platform, operating in 7 cities, with listings of over 20,000 restaurants, and real-time reservation enabled at over 2000 restaurants. Dineout has emerged as the preferred online table reservation app for diners in Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Dine out is a start-up brought to you by Times Internet, which is a subsidiary of Bennett Coleman & Company Limited.

Paytm, India’s largest mobile commerce platform is tempting all foodies to dine out and indulge in a wonderful gastronomical affair by entering into a partnership with Dineout.co.in, India’s one of the largest table reservation service.

Through the Dineout loyalty programme users can enjoy the advantages of having a table reserved, discounts and additional savings in the form of cashback and loyalty points credited into their Paytm wallets.

“After speaking to many Dineout users we arrived at a loyalty program where our valued patrons can reap the benefits of sticking with a great service. Paytm was an obvious choice for this partnership owing to their wide consumer reach, and the ease of use of the service,” said Ankit Mehrotra, Co-Founder, Dineout.co.in. Loyalty points can be earned once the user books a table using the Dineout service.

By completing simple tasks such as writing reviews, inviting friends and checking-in while at the restaurant through the Dineout app, users earn loyalty points.

All these points are redeemable to Cash directly into a users Paytm wallet. Commenting on the partnership, Amit Lakhotia, Vice President, Paytm said, “Paytm and Dineout enjoy massive popularity and the loyalty programme that we have devised is a truly innovative concept for the benefit of our users. Paytm is committed to coming up with extremely innovative tie-ups to offer customers maximum benefit while using their digital wallets. Through this first-of-its-kind partnership, we aim to give food connoisseurs in India another reason to turn to technology for the most convenient and rewarding dining out experience till date.”