Reliance Industries, one in all India’s largest industrial homes, has acquired a majority stake in NowFloats, an Indian startup that helps companies and people construct on-line presence with none internet growing expertise.
In a regulatory submitting on Thursday, Reliance Strategic Business Ventures Limited mentioned (PDF) it has acquired an 85% stake in NowFloats for 1.four billion Indian rupees ($20 million).
Seven-and-a-half-year outdated, Hyderabad-headquartered NowFloats operates an eponymous platform that permits people and companies to simply construct a web-based presence. Using NowFloats’ providers, a mother and pop retailer, as an example, can construct an internet site, publish their catalog, in addition to interact with their clients on WhatsApp.
The startup, which has raised about 12 million in fairness financing previous to right this moment’s announcement, claims to have helped over 300,000 collaborating retail companions. NowFloats counts Blume Ventures, Omidyar Network, Iron Pillar, IIFL Wealth Management, and Hyderabad Angels amongst its traders.
Last 12 months, NowFloats acquired LookUp, an India-based chat service that connects shoppers to native enterprise — and is backed by Vinod Khosla’s private fund Khosla Impact, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures and Global Founders Capital.
Reliance Strategic Business Ventures Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, mentioned that it could make investments as much as 750 million Indian rupees ($10.6 million) of extra capital into the startup, and lift its stake to about 89.66%, if NowFloats achieves sure unspecified objectives by the tip of subsequent 12 months.
In an announcement, Reliance Industries mentioned the funding will “further enable the group’s digital and new commerce initiatives.” NowFloats is the most recent acquisition Reliance has made within the nation this 12 months. In August, the conglomerate mentioned it was shopping for a majority stake in Google-backed Fynd for $42.three million. In April, it purchased a majority stake in Haptik in a deal price $100 million.
There are about 60 million small and medium-sized companies in India. Like lots of of thousands and thousands of Indians, many in small cities and cities, who’ve come on-line lately because of world’s least expensive cellular information plans and cheap Android smartphones, companies are more and more constructing on-line presence as properly.
But overwhelming majority of them are nonetheless offline, a incontrovertible fact that has created immense alternatives for startups — and VCs trying into this area — and main know-how giants. New Delhi-based BharatPe, which helps retailers settle for on-line funds and offers them with working capital, raised $50 million in August. Khatabook and OkCredit, two digital bookkeeping apps for retailers, have additionally raised vital amount of cash this 12 months.
In latest years, Google has additionally appeared into the area. It has launched instruments — and supplied steerage — to assist neighborhood shops set up some presence on the net. In September, the corporate introduced that its Google Pay service, which is utilized by greater than 67 million customers in India, will now allow companies to just accept digital funds and attain their clients on-line.
