NEW DELHI: Online restaurant guide Zomato has stepped into the lion’s den in the United States with an estimated $60 million (Rs 370 crore) acquisition of Seattle-based food portal Urbanspoon , a deal which will bring it into direct confrontation with Yelp The purchase demonstrates a large appetite by Zomato for a significant slice of the vast American market for online food listings, dominated by Yelp, a public listed company and the world’s largest.This latest deal-- the sixth and biggest acquisition so far by Zomato-- will be an all-cash transaction powered by the Gurgaon-based company’s most recent round of funding that closed in November.Deepinder Goyal, the chief executive of Zomato finalised the acquisition with digital media company InterActive Corp which owns Urbanspoon, last week.“Zomato's traffic will more than double to more than 80 million visitors, probably making us the largest restaurant (only) search company in the world,” said Pankaj Chaddah, cofounder of Zomato. The startup launched six years ago by Goyal and Chaddah, former consultants at Bain & Co, now does business in 22 countries.The aggressive expansion in overseas markets has helped boost the attractiveness of Zomato amongst investors who valued the company at $660 million in its last funding round when early investors InfoEdge , Sequoia Capital joined Vy Capital to invest $60 million in the company.Zomato last year acquired five restaurant search players in New Zealand, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Italy.“It’s a good business strategy at this stage in lifecycle of Zomato to focus on expansion with (investor) funding,” said Sharad Sharma, angel investor and founder of software product think-tank iSpirt.“Zomato’s valuation will go up when it becomes a category leader in key markets,” he said.It is important for Zomato to do well in the US, where dining and restaurants market grossed about $680 billion last year as per statistics portal Statista. For Zomato, a strong performance in this market is key to boosting revenues, which is now estimated to reach Rs 100 crore at the end of this fiscal.The company expects to derive at least 60 % of its traffic from the US as a result of this deal and boost its restaurant listings to one million. Urbanspoon’s 50-member team will be integrated with Zomato’s workforce of 900 globally, by the end of March.Apart from the US-- where it will compete with Google-backed online food listing portal Zagat and OpenTable-- this latest deal will also help Zomato enter the Australian market.“The deal will be largely funded from our last fund raise and internal accruals as we are cash positive,” said Chaddah.Owned by media billionaire Barry Diller, UrbanSpoon is just one of the 150 internet brands under IAC. Other major IAC internet companies include Match.com, OkCupid Pricerunner and Tinder.“Zomato’s significant investments in people and technology will bring Urbanspoon customers, restaurant owners, and food bloggers a number of new capabilities and features. We’re excited to combine our strengths to accelerate growth,” said Keela Robison, chief executive officer of Urbanspoon.“The Zomato brand will be live across Google play store and Apple store in the US from March, when we merge completely with the Urbanspoon brand,” said Chaddah.The company, which now relies solely on online advertisements as its major revenue source, is testing an in-house payment platform for diners in key markets. This will be significant as it takes on rivals like Zagat and Opentable, who list and also book tables online and through mobile applications.Google acquired Zagat in 2012 for about $150 million. OpenTable which claims to have over 15 million bookings a month for about 35,000 restaurants partners with Zomato for table bookings in the United Kingdom.Zomato’s biggest test will come from the NYSE listed Yelp which operates in about 28 countries and lists business ranging from restaurants to beauty salons and spas.