Livebookings: The VC-backed business shaking up the restaurant industry

With a pool of experienced investors including Balderton Capital and Wellington Partners, GrowthBusiness meets new Livebookings CEO Joe Steele to find out how the business is revolutionising the way we book a table.

Having closed a £15 million venture capital funding round in March 2012, London-based Livebookings used 2013 to implement a number of key changes in the business.

First in line was a new ‘long term, multi-year and multi-country’ partnership with restaurant-rating guide Michelin – integrating the Livebookings reservation and bokings technology into the Michelin Restaurants search service.

Then it was an executive shake-up, with Joe Steele becoming CEO in October having joined as managing director of the newly-formed consumer division in June. Steele had previously worked at Thomas Cook, and is now being charged with spearheading the next stage of company’s merchant and consumer arms development.

Results released by Livebookings in November revealed year-on-year growth of 27 per cent when it comes to seated diners, and now has 9,000 restaurants in 23 countries. The technology company’s Bookatable platform saw growth of 6 per cent and added Pizza Express, La Tasca and Young’s Pubs.

To find out more, we visited the Livebookings HQ on the Southbank in London to sit down with Steele and discover where he wants to take the business.

More on Livebookings:

Hunter Ruthven

Bernard Williamson

Hunter was the Editor for GrowthBusiness.co.uk from 2012 to 2014, before moving on to Caspian Media Ltd to be Editor of Real Business.

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