Reserve Preps for Dining App Dominance with Two New Acquisitions

Reserve — a restaurant reservations and payment app — has acquired two companies. According to the company's blog, the app — which counts actor Jared Leto and director Jon Favreau among its investors — recently purchased Zurvu, a fellow online restaurant reservation service. Currently, Reserve works with 180 restaurants in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco. The acquisition of Zurvu — which allowed customers to request tables "at top restaurants" — means that Reserve will expand to Philadelphia, as well as add new restaurants in New York City.

Reserve also purchased Hail, a payment technology company. With Hail Pay, customers were able to " electronically hail their servers, split the check, and calculate tip automatically." These features will all soon be integrated into the Reserve app.

Reserve — unlike apps such as Cover and Resy — lets users make restaurant reservations and pay for the meal. Users must make the reservations from Reserve's "curated list" of restaurants, but beyond that, the app takes care of everything from confirming the reservation to paying for the meal to leaving a tip. The app charges users a $5 flat fee, regardless of the party size. While the restaurant reservations war is still going strong, it doesn't look like Reserve is going anywhere soon: The app announced in February that it raised $15 million in a round of funding.