Hyderabad-based NowFloats Technologies Pvt. Ltd., which runs a platform enabling local businesses to target customers based on their location under the banner of NowFloats, has raised an undisclosed amount in Series A round of funding led by Omidyar Network.
Existing investors including Blume Ventures, Mumbai Angels and Hyderabad Angels also participated in this round.
"By providing small merchants and local businesses an online presence, making local content and enabling discovery of this content, NowFloats is at the forefront of creating massive social impact,” said Anuradha Ramachandran, director, investments at Omidyar Network.
This money will be used to expand the company's global footprint and distribution platform.
The startup was founded by Nitin Jain (COO) and Jasminder Singh Gulati (CEO) in 2012. While Jain has a degree in MBA from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, Gulati has pursued an integrated marketing programme from University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School.
The startup offers two flagship products, NowFloats Lighthouse and NowFloats Wildfire which help in automating organic and inorganic discovery across customer segments.
It claims to be processing over 30 million touch points every month, with customers updating their sites half a million times. It said it has 33,000 customers.
"A new generation of business owners and technologies is creating a never-before opportunity and NowFloats is focused on helping small businesses get bigger. We are excited to partner with Omidyar Network and Blume Ventures to help our current customers get even more value, and expand the overall customer base," said Jain, co-founder and COO, NowFloats.
The company recently partnered with AskMe in India and Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative, which enables a million small businesses in Africa to come online.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)