It has been a lot of fun working with the Quandoo team and to have over 6000 restaurants in 13 countries and 6 million seated diners after 27 months is extraordinary. From my initial conversations with the Recruit team it was clear they did not fit the stereotype of Japanese sararimen and I’ve since come to appreciate how they too have built such a titan in their industry.

I like to work with people that have a shared vision of the market, excellence of execution and real sector expertise and Recruit have all three. It was a delight to welcome Recruit as co-investors in Wahanda and when Recruit invested in Quandoo, since then their value add has become increasingly clear.

With the announcements today, Quandoo and Recruit create a global market leader in the restaurant vertical and I’m excited about what this means for both companies as well as consumers and merchants globally. Thank you to all involved!

Press releases and coverage:

• Recruit Holdings: Announcement of Acquisition of Shares in Quandoo GmbH, an Online Restaurant Reservation Service Provider in the EU countries including Germany
• Reuters on the deal and recent M&A activity by Recruit
• TechCrunch: Japan’s Recruit Buys European Restaurant Booking Service Quandoo For $219M