Chope, the Singapore-based online reservation portal for restaurants, has raised $2.5 million in Series B funding led by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH).
SPH, a local publishing house, has invested $1.45 million for about 28% stake in Chope, valuing the company at $5.2 million. TechInAsia reported that there are two other prominent investors in this deal.
In 2012, Chope raised series A funding of $1.1 million and being founded a year earlier by Arrif Ziaudeen and Clowie Tan in Singapore. It expanded to Hong Kong in mid-2012.
The brand, which has native apps for both iPhone and Android, had served a million diners as of July 2012 and, interestingly, says that 27% of its online reservations are made between 10pm and 10am.
Nevertheless, food tech is a hot topic in the Asian market, and inevitably on the radar of many investors.
500 startups founder Dave Mc Clure believes that a food tech revolution is near. Putting his money where his mouth is, the company has already invested in 22 food tech startups.
Though the big daddy of the sector, OpenTable, was launched in 1999 in the US, Asia has only caught up over the course of the last three to four years.
Competitors of Chope in Asia include Thailand-based Wongnai (considered Thailand's Yelp), India-based Justeat, Singapore-based Reserveit.sg, Reservations.sg and HungryGoWhere (acquired by SingTel last year for $9.6 million).