According to reports, Hyderabad-based NowFloats Pvt. Ltd, which helps small and medium businesses (SMBs) create an online presence, has acquired chat messaging start-up Lookup for an undisclosed amount in a cash and equity deal.
Jasminder Singh Gulati, co-founder of NowFloats, said, “It was a cash and equity deal and we shall be making the official announcement in the next 20 days. NowFloats is, meanwhile, looking to close its Series B round of funding this quarter.”
Lookup, which is run by Bangalore-based Hatchery Software Pvt. Ltd, allows users to chat with local businesses by providing details on the availability of a product or any information, service or support. As per this deal, 16 employees of the Lookup team will now be part of Nowfloats, which includes Lookup co-founder Deepak Ravindran heading the conversational commerce vertical.
The chat service will be integrated into all Nowfloats users and the Lookup app will continue to exist, giving NowFloats access to 1.2 million users and 90,000 merchants.
Lookup had raised $2.5 million in a Series A round of funding in 2015 that was led by Khosla Impact, a venture capital (VC) fund founded by Vinod Khosla, with participation of Twitter Inc. co-founder Biz Stone; Catamaran Ventures, backed by Infosys Ltd co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy; and Global Founders Capital, among others.
NowFloats was founded in 2012 by Gulati, Nitin Jain, Ronak Kumar Samantray and Neeraj Sabharwal.
“We manage the content, running of the website promoting contextual content and other things for the companies,” said Gulati. The company charges an annual fee of Rs.20,000 and works with over 250,000 small businesses.
NowFloat wants to reach 1 million businesses and 10 million users by the end of the current financial year. Over the next year, it plans to invest in technology and expand its current market share organically and through acquisitions.
