AllergyEats — the food allergy community’s favorite restaurant discovery and rating service — has announced its acquisition by Sirved, a Canadian technology company that provides AI-enhanced restaurant and menu discovery tools.
AllergyEats CEO Paul Antico issued the following announcement regarding the acquisition on the company’s Facebook page:
Dear friends:
13 years. It has been 13 years since I decided to take on the undertaking of creating AllergyEats. Born from my family’s own challenges in feeding 3 children with multiple food allergies, I knew millions of others were similarly struggling and needed the same help we did.
At the time, allergy-friendly restaurants were few and far between, and our community was desperate for information about where they could find such restaurants. No comprehensive resources existed. I believed there was a tremendous need for a peer-reviewed website (and eventually an app) to help us help each other in our mutual cause.
So I started AllergyEats in 2009. Thanks to my smartest decisions – the hiring of invaluable team members Sharon Studley and Jesse Pezzullo – and with the support of so many prominent members of the food allergy community, I’m proud to say we built the dominant online resource for dining out with food allergies, helping millions of food allergy families. The continued growth and improvement of that platform continues to this day.
Now, a new and exciting chapter in the history of AllergyEats begins.
Recognizing my own shortcomings as an operator and the need for AllergyEats to be taken to a new level, I’m excited to announce that I’ve agreed to have AllergyEats be acquired by Sirved. For those unfamiliar with Sirved, they are a Canadian tech company with an AI-enhanced restaurant and menu discovery tool. Sirved has been a valuable partner for AllergyEats over the past few years and I am convinced that I’m putting “my baby” into great hands. While AllergyEats will continue to operate as an independent resource for all of you, as it does today, the synergies between it and Sirved will lead to better support for the food allergy community as it expands the reach and breadth of AllergyEats to help users find even more relevant restaurant information, menus, reviews, and more.
It’s tough to let your child go, but the time is right and the new parent way more than sufficiently-qualified.
I want to take this last opportunity to thank YOU, our amazing food allergy community and so many of my dear friends, for making AllergyEats what it is today. I couldn’t do this alone. Nor could Sharon, Jesse, and I together. It took your support, particularly through your own commitment to rating your dining out experiences, to create the true value of AllergyEats for our community. And I’m excited to see you continue to do so today as dining out returns to post-COVID normality. I also would like to thank all those in the community who have provided valuable friendship, guidance, and partnership along the way.
I will miss my role in this community, but look forward to continuing to support AllergyEats and the broader food allergy cause well into the future.
I wish you all well, and your families too, as we continue this journey together.
My last request is for all of us to double our efforts to rate our restaurant experiences on AllergyEats, and re-rate those we haven’t reviewed in a while (especially since pre-COVID), in support of our community of AllergyEats users, as we get excited about Sirved and the enhancements they look to provide to our amazing 13-year-old resource over the coming years.
Thank you for the honor of being able to serve you with a resource that you made great. All my best to all of you!
Sincerely, Paul
The press release announcing the acquisition can be found in its entirety below.
For many years, AllergyEats and SnackSafely.com have worked together to strategize how to best serve the food allergy community. We congratulate Paul and wish him much success in his next endeavor.
Restaurant Discovery Platform Sirved Acquires Allergy-Friendly Restaurant Guide AllergyEats
Popular restaurant and menu discovery platform Sirved expands its offerings by acquiring AllergyEats, the leading guide to allergy-friendly restaurants in the United States.
TORONTO, Nov. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Sirved Mobile Solutions, Inc., a Canadian technology company that provides an AI-enhanced restaurant and menu discovery tool to millions of users via multiple channels, announced today that it had acquired AllergyEats, the leading crowdsourced guide to allergy-friendly restaurants in North America. By expanding its restaurant discovery offerings through this acquisition, Sirved can better support the allergy community and help even more people find relevant restaurant information, menus, photos, and reviews.
Founded in 2010, AllergyEats (www.AllergyEats.com) makes it easier for diners with food allergies and intolerances to find restaurants that will accommodate their unique dietary needs. Since its launch over a decade ago, the company has quickly become the dominant peer-reviewed directory of allergy-friendly restaurants in the U.S. Its users rate restaurants on how willing they are to accommodate food allergies and intolerances so that others can make educated dining decisions. With over 850,000 restaurants in its database, AllergyEats displays ratings for both local and chain restaurants via its app and website for a huge, albeit frequently overlooked, demographic: 30+ million Americans who live with food allergies and intolerances. Sirved’s acquisition of AllergyEats will expose a vast new audience to all of these capabilities even as loyal users can continue using the original service without disruption.
AllergyEats users also receive access to other relevant restaurant and dining details, including menus, OpenTable reservation capabilities, maps and directions, allergen commitment statements, user comments, and restaurant contact information. In addition, the AllergyEats website and app feature Top 10 lists, an award-winning blog, destination guides, a robust and engaged social media community, and more.
“There’s a natural synergy that exists between our two companies, and we’re very excited to capitalize on that,” Jonathan Leslie, President and Co-Founder of Sirved, said. “We founded Sirved with the goal of making it fast and easy for people to find a great restaurant no matter where they are in North America. The addition of AllergyEats – which will continue to operate separately from Sirved.com – will give us an added resource that people can use to find menus and allow us to help those who experience food allergies.”
Founder and former CEO of AllergyEats, Paul Antico, added, “After 13 years of developing AllergyEats into the dominant guide to allergy-friendly restaurants in the U.S., I am thrilled to have Sirved acquire AllergyEats. This acquisition will enhance and increase the information and capabilities offered by AllergyEats for our loyal, dedicated, and growing user base, who not only find allergy-friendly restaurants on the platform’s website and app but rate their own restaurant experiences for the benefit of the whole community.”
Long-time members of the AllergyEats community can expect the service to function as it always has, supplying them with reliable, peer-reviewed ratings of allergy-friendly restaurants across North America.
About Sirved Mobile Solutions, Inc.
Sirved Mobile Solutions, Inc. (www.sirved.com) is a digital company that specializes in restaurant and menu discovery. Founded in 2015, Sirved utilizes advanced machine learning and AI technology to offer the largest searchable database of restaurant menus, reviews, photos, and contact information in the world. Continuously updated, the database hosts 550,000 restaurants and counting across North America. Millions of app and website users take advantage of Sirved’s tools every year to discover and curate lists of favorite new restaurants based on cuisine, cravings, dietary needs, location, and other keyword searches.
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