In Startup50 2016: NowFloats Technologies’ self-service platform has helped over 1,21,000 micro and small businesses with their digital marketing and achieving this puts it on the winners list

Founders: Jasminder Singh Gulati, Neeraj Sabharwal, Ronak Samantray And Nitin Jain

A small business owner can get an online presence or an app in under 13 minutes using SMS to communicate. It sounds near impossible, but Hyderabad-based NowFloats Technologies (NowFloats) has helped make it happen by creating a self-service platform for medium, small and micro businesses to market themselves online. The company, founded in 2012 by Jasminder Singh Gulati, Neeraj Sabharwal, Ronak Samantray and Nitin Jain, has put 1,21,000 micro and small businesses online and this is no small feat given the lack of technology adoption in this Indian segment. In 2015, NowFloats received a Series-A of US $6 million from Omidyar Network and existing investors Blume Ventures, Mumbai Angels and Hyderabad Angels. The founders indicate that the company will soon close its Series-B possibly to the tune of US $10 million.

Simplifying technology

NowFloats does more than just help this segment of business owners create an online presence, it also helps with updates and maintenance, again, by way of communication through SMS.  The company also offers SEO services and higher discoverability online for these businesses. Its recently launched products, Real-Time Intelligence Agent (RIA) and KITSUNE, a programming language where the website adapts itself based on usage and aids in faster task completion provides SMBs with more power online.

Establishing scale

A quick look at some of the statistics show how NowFloats is doing its part to change the landscape of SMBs in India; in a month, it has 2.6 million unique visitors on its platform and US $3.2 million worth of inventory listed through it. Close to 4.3 percent of the 7,00,000 SMBs online use its platform to increase reach.

Digitising India

Digital Desh Drive, an initiative of NowFloats powered by Google India, aims to tell the stories of Tier-II and III India and how technology now plays a part in their daily livelihood.

1,21,000

(Number of SMBs that NowFloats has put online)

13

(Number of minutes it takes an SMB to get online using NowFloats platform)

2.6 million

(Number of unique visitors on the platform per month)