NowFloats, a discovery platform which
helps businesses get online and find more customers using proprietary auto-SEO
technology, has closed a Series B funding of USD 10 Million via Iron Pillar and
IIFL (Seed Ventures Fund I & Cash Opportunities Fund), along with Blume
Ventures & Omidyar Network, who had invested in Series A as well. The
company plans to invest this capital primarily on Customer Support &
Engagement and on increasing the value proposition of the technology provided
to SMEs.
helps businesses get online and find more customers using proprietary auto-SEO
technology, has closed a Series B funding of USD 10 Million via Iron Pillar and
IIFL (Seed Ventures Fund I & Cash Opportunities Fund), along with Blume
Ventures & Omidyar Network, who had invested in Series A as well. The
company plans to invest this capital primarily on Customer Support &
Engagement and on increasing the value proposition of the technology provided
to SMEs.
NowFloats will invest the capital to
further improve the new technology stack that drives customer support, it would
now be a hybrid of automated and human interaction support system. Also
NowFloats plans to enable the larger enterprises to leverage automated SEO on
top of their existing websites. With respect to SMEs, NowFloats aims to now
also go beyond discovery by simplifying online and offline transactions. The
company plans to continue to invest in Digital Desh Drive which has been in
instrumental in understanding the market, especially the Tier 2 and Tier 3
cities in India.
further improve the new technology stack that drives customer support, it would
now be a hybrid of automated and human interaction support system. Also
NowFloats plans to enable the larger enterprises to leverage automated SEO on
top of their existing websites. With respect to SMEs, NowFloats aims to now
also go beyond discovery by simplifying online and offline transactions. The
company plans to continue to invest in Digital Desh Drive which has been in
instrumental in understanding the market, especially the Tier 2 and Tier 3
cities in India.
Commenting on the announcement, Neeraj
Sabharwal, Co-founder, NowFloats said, “At NowFloats, we have always believed
that an SME needs to talk about their business regularly (talk about product
features, new offers/events, reviews, etc.) to attract more customers online.
Our product is geared towards making it as simple as possible for business
owners to interact and add updates to their online identity. This is what
primarily fuels the automated SEO engine of NowFloats. We started with simple
SMS as the tool to manage website, and today 95% of our merchants prefer using
Boost (a smartphone app) to manage their online business. There are also other
players in the market which enable SMEs with an online identity that only
aggregates basic business information and their product catalog. This strategy
does not drive ROI over a longer time-span as the content becomes non-relevant
with time. We at NowFloats want to re-define the market for business websites,
where the business owners only have to worry about the content on the website,
and the technology takes care of other aspects like design, performance,
discovery (SEO), marketing (SEM), enabling transactions (payment gateway) and
customer/lead management, etc. We are
investing in creating a product that would be one day used by all the SMEs
across the globe, and built out of India.”
Sabharwal, Co-founder, NowFloats said, “At NowFloats, we have always believed
that an SME needs to talk about their business regularly (talk about product
features, new offers/events, reviews, etc.) to attract more customers online.
Our product is geared towards making it as simple as possible for business
owners to interact and add updates to their online identity. This is what
primarily fuels the automated SEO engine of NowFloats. We started with simple
SMS as the tool to manage website, and today 95% of our merchants prefer using
Boost (a smartphone app) to manage their online business. There are also other
players in the market which enable SMEs with an online identity that only
aggregates basic business information and their product catalog. This strategy
does not drive ROI over a longer time-span as the content becomes non-relevant
with time. We at NowFloats want to re-define the market for business websites,
where the business owners only have to worry about the content on the website,
and the technology takes care of other aspects like design, performance,
discovery (SEO), marketing (SEM), enabling transactions (payment gateway) and
customer/lead management, etc. We are
investing in creating a product that would be one day used by all the SMEs
across the globe, and built out of India.”
Anand Prasanna, Managing Partner, Iron
Pillar said, “NowFloats’ focus on product, and fundamental business sense
resonates well with Iron Pillar’s beliefs that great businesses need to be
built on solid foundations. We love working closely with this high energy team,
and are eager to help them specifically in structuring and focusing sales
efforts, growth initiatives in the next few years, and improving pre-identified
key business metrics. We also look forward to help building the business
meaningfully beyond India through Iron Pillar’s networks, especially in Asia
Pacific and the US.”
Pillar said, “NowFloats’ focus on product, and fundamental business sense
resonates well with Iron Pillar’s beliefs that great businesses need to be
built on solid foundations. We love working closely with this high energy team,
and are eager to help them specifically in structuring and focusing sales
efforts, growth initiatives in the next few years, and improving pre-identified
key business metrics. We also look forward to help building the business
meaningfully beyond India through Iron Pillar’s networks, especially in Asia
Pacific and the US.”
The USP of NowFloats lies in the fact
that it’s a frictionless mobile technology that connects online consumers to
local offline businesses. With innovation deeply embedded in its very DNA,
every 3 months NowFloats travels across India to uncover new tech behaviors and
smartphone adoption, via its Digital Desh initiative.
that it’s a frictionless mobile technology that connects online consumers to
local offline businesses. With innovation deeply embedded in its very DNA,
every 3 months NowFloats travels across India to uncover new tech behaviors and
smartphone adoption, via its Digital Desh initiative.
Presently, the online discovery
platform has an instant presence across 230,000+ customers, among which up to
80% are paid customers across all channels. The platform also registers over 11
million unique visitors a month, and has 474K unprompted SKUs in its credit.
platform has an instant presence across 230,000+ customers, among which up to
80% are paid customers across all channels. The platform also registers over 11
million unique visitors a month, and has 474K unprompted SKUs in its credit.
Furthermore, NowFloats has a host of
prestigious industry recognitions to its name, including the Microsoft BizSpark
award, Nasscom Emerge 50 2013 award, Best App award by Google, and several
other equally impressive titles.
prestigious industry recognitions to its name, including the Microsoft BizSpark
award, Nasscom Emerge 50 2013 award, Best App award by Google, and several
other equally impressive titles.
