Dive Brief:

• American Express has agreed to acquire Resy for an undisclosed amount to build upon its growing suite of digital-first benefits and services, according to a press release.
• The acquisition is expected to be completed during the summer.
• The Resy brand and digital platform will continue to be led by co-founder and CEO Ben Leventhal and co-founder and CTO Michael Montero. Its existing reservation booking and management software will continue to be offered. 

Dive Insight:

This acquisition will make American Express a new force within the reservation platform segment. Its latest acquisition will help it create a suite of digital capabilities to provide more options for card members and merchants in the dining, travel and lifestyle space. Its recent acquisitions include personal travel assistant app Mezi, U.K. reservation platform Cake Technologies, LoungeBuddy and Japanese reservation platform Pocket Concierge.

With American Express' backing, Resy, which works with 4,000 restaurants in 154 U.S. cities and 10 countries, could help it better compete against the likes of OpenTable, which has dominated the reservation space in the U.S. thanks to its roughly 50,000 restaurant partnerships. OpenTable's parent company Booking Holdings also just acquired guest management platform Venga, which will let OpenTable’s partner restaurants create customer profiles to keep better track of things like dining preference and order history.

American Express, which had over $40 billion in revenue in 2018, also has over 53 million cards in force in the U.S. and 114 million in force globally, according to its 2018 annual report, which could help Resy expand its exposure to more consumers. 

More exposure will be needed, especially with additional competition in the space. Google added reviews to Google Maps last year and Waitr is exploring adding a reservation and loyalty platform.