An India-based restaurant discovery app backed by one of Silicon Valley’s most famous venture capital companies has raised $60 million as part of plans for an aggressive push into the already crowded European market.

New Delhi-headquartered Zomato has raised the sum from Vy Capital, Indian e-commerce business Info Edge and Sequoia Capital, the Silicon Valley investment house famed for its early backing of Apple, Google, YouTube and Yahoo. It takes the total raised by the company to $113 million.

Zomato, which launched in 2008 but only came to the UK last year, plans to use the cash to “put our growth in hyperdrive”, according to UK boss Kimberly Hurd.

“We’re using a large portion of this to cement our growth in Europe and here in the UK, to expand our products and services and even look at potential acquisitions.”

Asked if the company would look at acquiring businesses in the UK, Hurd said: “I’m not going to rule it out. It’s something that we’re looking at not just in the UK but in the rest of Europe, as well as globally.”

She added: “London will be the hub for all of Europe and we’re looking at expanding quite rapidly, with Ireland next on the list.”

But Zomato’s goal to become number one won’t be easy - the market for restaurant discovery and listing apps is extremely crowded, with well-established UK operators such as Open Table and Urban Spoon.

Hurd claimed Zomato is the “most comprehensive” service on the market, saying: “We list in the UK over 28,000 restaurants. You can store them and search them by over 45 variables, you can search the menus. You can actually find sushi at a place that does great martinis and has wifi and is pet friendly.”

Hurd said Zomato, which currently covers London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh, currently received 3 million visitors a month in the UK. Globally the service operates across over 100 cities in 18 countries and has 30 million monthly visitors.

Sequoia Capital’s Mohit Bhatnagar said: “Zomato is a global internet company that happens to be from India. It’s been fascinating to see how [Zomato founder] Deepinder Goyal has got founders from many countries to combine forces with Zomato by aligning their vision to a larger common goal.”