Josh Horwitz · · 2 min readLine invests in restaurant-booking startup to move concierge services into messaging app
Days after Line disclosed its establishment of a US$42 million fund for startup investments, the company is already announcing its second investment. Today the firm revealed it has sunk an undisclosed sum into Pocket-menu Co., the parent company of Japanese restaurant-booking service Pocket Concierge.
Like San Francisco’s Open Table, Pocket Concierge lets users book tables at a range of eateries, though it primarily targets the high-end. The company raised US$600,000 in funding in September 2013, six months after its official launch.
In an official statement, Line says that it will work towards integrating services like Line Pay, Line Taxi, and its Line@ enterprise chat accounts into Pocket Concierge and its partner restaurants.
This investment marks the latest bet from Line’s Line Life Global Gateway fund, which the company created as a means to invest in ecommerce, online-to-offline services, media, and payments. Five days ago Line announced that Japan’s 3minute, a startup that promotes female Youtube stars, scored an investment from the fund.
Line’s investment in a restaurant-reservation app should come as no surprise, as its flagship messenger continues to transform from a chat app to a hub for lifestyle services. WeChat, the messaging app of choice in China, is slightly ahead of Line when it comes to its product suite, and the future of Line and other messaging apps can be gauged somewhat by watching WeChat’s development. Last year, Tencent purchased a 20 percent stake in Dianping, a Yelp-esque restaurant listings app, and promptly moved it into WeChat.
It’s not clear if Line’s lifestyle services suite will extend beyond Japan, though analogous investments or launches look likely to occur in Taiwan and Thailand, where the app retains market leadership. In any case, these rapid-fire announcements indicate that Line can and will drive growth (and possibly exits) for startups in Asia.
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
