Google has acquired Appetas, a company that helps restaurants build their websites in seconds. The company also integrates these websites with services like GrubHub, OpenTable, Foursquare and others focused on the food industry. Appetas has said in a blog post that it will be shutting down its service and will help its customers to move their sites to alternative platforms. Google might be planning to integrate this service into its location-based services and food-vertical content like Zagat. It could also use Appetas to tackle apps such as Yelp and Foursquare.
Appetas was founded in 2012 by Curtis Fonger and Keller Smith and has raised around $120,000 as fund. The company has also raised a small amount of funding as winners of the AngelHack hackathon in 2012. Appetas’ statement on the acquisition:
We are excited to announce that the Appetas team is joining Google. Google shares Appetas’ vision for bringing incredibly simple experiences to merchants that strengthen their business. We’re very excited to use what we’ve learned with Appetas to create something even better at Google.
To focus on our new endeavors, we’ll be shutting down the Appetas service and working with our customers to transition their websites over to alternative platforms. We’ll be reaching out to each customer individually to ensure a smooth transition.
Thanks to all of our customers and partners who used the service, gave us feedback, and helped make Appetas what it is today. In addition, we wouldn’t be here without the guidance and support we received from our families, friends, mentors, and investors. This has been an incredible experience and we can’t wait to discover what the future holds!
SOURCE: Appetas
