Notable Fintech M&A: American Express Acquires Restaurant-Booking App Pocket Concierge

The financial services company American Express today acquired the Japanese restaurant-booking app Pocket Concierge for an undisclosed amount. The startup is a graduate of 500 Startups Japan. Over the past two years, there has been a developing rapport between restaurant/food services companies and the payments industry. For card issuers such as American Express, rewards and cash back programs are imperative to their business. What better industry to design these offerings around than the restaurant industry? When car-ride app Uber partnered with Barclays to offer Uber credit card, restaurant spending was allotted the highest area consumers could earn points. Uber credit users earn up to 4% cash back on restaurants and UberEATS. Whether American Express plans to use Pocket Concierge for something similar is unclear. “Our Card Members love to dine out, so we are always exploring ways to provide them with greater access to reservations across the globe,” said Chris Cracchiolo, SVP of Global Loyalty and Benefits, American Express, said in the announcement today. “Pocket Concierge’s reservation platform and extensive relationships with top Japanese restaurants provide us with a great opportunity to continue to enhance and expand upon the dining access we provide to our Card Members across the globe.” Bank Innovation has reached out to American Express for comment but the company said it could not share any specifics at this time. "We will be working closely with the Pocket Concierge team in order to provide our Card Members with additional access to top restaurant reservations in Japan," American Express told Bank Innovation. On the deal, James Riney, managing partner at 500 Startups Japan, said in a blog post today: <span style="display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; cursor: text; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The team was able to bring the best culinary experiences in Japan online and make them accessible in English and Chinese. And their timing was impeccable: inbound tourists to Japan have increased from just under 10 million to over 30 million in the last 5 years...When we were just getting started, we talked about the opportunity for cross-border M&A in Japan. For foreign companies, acquiring locally is a viable way to unlock value in this country. A lot of people rightfully doubted that possibility, as it is so uncommon. Pocket Concierge not only proved that it is possible, but they also found a home at one of the world’s most well-respected companies. Founded in 2015, Pocket Concierge, previously known as Pocket Menu, is a restaurant-booking app for high-end and Michelin-starred restaurants in Japan. The app is available in English, Chinese and Japanese. The app currently includes 800 restaurants, according to its website. It is a direct competitor to companies such as OpenTable.

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Notable Fintech M&A: American Express Acquires Restaurant-Booking App Pocket Concierge

Wells Fargo’s 4Q Performance a Mixed Bag, But Reflects More Digital Migration

Bank of America Falls Short of Ambitious Goal for Digital Sales

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