Choco takes over Spanish start-up Katoo

The food service platform claims to be the leading ordering app for restaurants in Spain. It is not known how much the takeover cost.

The Spanish offshoot of the food service platform Choco has acquired the start-up Katoo. This makes Choco the leading food service ordering app in Spain, according to the company. The unicorn adds 1000 suppliers and 3000 restaurants to its own app through Katoo customers. Neither company provided any information on pricing terms.

"We decided to join forces with Katoo because our goal has always been the same: to reduce food waste while helping the restaurant industry to digitize itself," says Choco co-founder and CEO Daniel Khachab. Diogo Cunha, CEO and co-founder of Katoo, also sees the merger with the long-standing partner as an opportunity to further develop the company's own offering.

Choco counts 11,000 suppliers and 15,000 restaurateurs among its users worldwide. According to the company, 500,000 orders with an annual turnover of over one billion euros are traded via the app every month. The company is the market leader in the USA and Europe. Khachab founded Choco in 2018 with Julian Hammer and Grégoire Ambroselli in Berlin; today, the company is worth more than one billion US dollars.

Katoo, on the other hand, was founded in Madrid in 2019. Diogo Cunha and Karan Anand wanted to simplify the relationship between suppliers and restaurants with their app. Restaurateurs can place orders via email or WhatsApp. According to Katoo, its customers include 5,000 restaurants in four countries.