Technology startup NowFloats raises first round of funding from Blume Ventures

Technology startup NowFloats has raised first round of funding from Mumbai Angels, Blume Ventures and a few individual investors.


The Hyderabad-based company, founded in early 2012, focuses on helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) create an online presence through a basic SMS. The company claims it can help SMEs create a website in 13 minutes with four text messages.

“The investment will help us scale, improve customer engagement and keep our product ahead of the curve,” said Jasminder Singh Gulati, cofounder at NowFloats.

The company declined to disclose the quantum of funding. There are a number of other ventures that help small businesses create websites online.

These include international companies like Google and GoDaddy. Others like Shopify, BuildBazaar and Shopnix help businesses create ecommerce stores. However, most of these platforms require users to have a computer to create a site.

A recent study done by industry body FICCI along with Google revealed that only 5% of Indian SMEs have a web presence. The study also revealed that webenabled small businesses see significant advantages.

These businesses had 51% higher revenues, 49% more profit and 7% broader customer base than their offline-only counterparts.

NowFloats, which was incubated at Microsoft Ventures Accelerator, also has a mobile app, available on Android and Windows smartphones, that allows users to discover businesses or get deals based on their location.

The websites of SMEs generated through NowFloat technology can also be discovered based on location and companies can update their sites by sending text messages. The company claims to have over 2000 clients.