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Yelp, which made a name for itself by offering restaurant deals, has purchased the car services website.
In the company’s quarterly earnings report today, Yelp revealed that it has agreed to buy RepairPal, an auto repair estimates site, for $80 million in cash.
The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to customary closing conditions.
“We believe RepairPal will accelerate our broader services efforts by expanding our offering in the multi-billion-dollar U.S. auto services advertising space,” Jeremy Stoppelman, co-founder and CEO of Yelp, said in a statement.
While it may not seem like an obvious marriage, RepairPal fits with Yelp’s ambition to become a major path for home services.
In recent years, Yelp has added functionality beyond its restaurant and business search tools, such as an AI-powered feature that suggests plumbers, repairmen and other home service providers users might need. Yelp also introduced a program called Yelp Guaranteed, which provides coverage of up to $2,500 for qualifying projects in the event of problems.
Yelp makes money through the fees it receives from providers for specific leads, and through advertising. In the company’s most recent fiscal quarter, advertising revenue from services businesses increased 11% year-over-year to a record $228 million, with revenue growing nearly 15% in the home services category alone.
The acquisition is a welcome exit for San Francisco-based RepairPal, which has raised $21.3 million in funding from Cars.com, Tugboat Ventures and others in the 17 years since the company was founded. In its press release, Yelp did not say whether founders Aaron Tavistock, David Esser, and David Stortz would join Yelp.
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