Mobikon buys restaurants' platform MassBlurb

Bengaluru, June 23 (IANA) Mobikon, an international online player in the food and beverages industry, on Thursday announced acquiring MassBlurb, an automated e-platform for marketing restaurants, for an unspecified amount.

'The acquisition will enable us to add 200 more brands and take the total to 500 plus restaurants, with 1,200 outlets across the country and 2,800 overseas,' the company said in a statement here.

This is the maiden buyout of the Pune-based start-up in the country after similar acquisitions and tie-ups in Southeast Asia to offer customer engagement for restaurants on social platforms through listings, review management, integrated website and cloud telephony.

'MassBlurb will help us to offer customer engagement solutions on social platforms, allowing restaurants to generate social leads, converting likes and followers to business, website automation, cloudy telephony,' said Mobikon founder and chief executive Samir Khadepaun.

Post-acquisition, MassBlurb co-founders Sanket Shah and Pankit Chheda will take up key roles at Mobikon, with the former managing key accounts and partnerships, while the latter will work with chief technology officer for new product initiatives.

'We will also scale our product overseas where demand is high and increase our revenue per restaurant, as we are targetting over 800 restaurant brands in the next 12 months internationally,' Khadepaun said.

Terming the buyout strategic, he said it was in line with the vision to be the single marketing and customer experience platform for restaurants.

With operations in five Southeast Asian countries and complimentary products, Mobikon has synergies to become a de-facto tool for restaurants by leveraging MassBlurb's domain expertise in food and beverages industry.

'In a fragmented and unorganized sector, we believe we are solving the 'true' problems for restaurants with the right unit-economics,' said Shah.

With presence in Singapore, Manila, Dubai, Macau, Kuala Lumpur and India, Mobikon has ramped up its headcount to 116, with 98 in India and 18 overseas.

'Every month, our platform powers 100,000+ reviews, 170,000+ new diners are added and the platform engages 10,00,000+ diners,' Khadepaun added.

Among its leading customers are Radisson Hotel, JP Palace, Copper Chimney, Pind Baluchi and Pizza Express in India and Shankey's Pizza, Swensens, City of Dreams, Secret Recipe, Red Crab Group, Minor Group and Select Group internationally.

--IANS

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