What's behind the acquisition of Lookup by NowFloats

Lookup founder Deepak Ravindran says that the market is tough, reports Tech in Asia

Hyderabad-based NowFloats, founded in 2012, is one of India’s hot software product start-ups. It provides a platform to help local businesses get discovered by online users. 

Bangalore-based Lookup, floated in 2014, takes another route to help small businesses leapfrog into the mobile age. Its chat commerce app connects consumers with local businesses.

Today Lookup and NowFloats have announced a merger, on the premise that the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts.

In an AMA with Tech in Asia barely eight months ago, Lookup founder Deepak Ravindran said: “We are solving the hyperlocal puzzle one by one... The idea is to become the number one player in connecting businesses with consumers using messaging. This is a very big opportunity in India since we have over 45 million local businesses.”

Much water has flowed under the bridge since then. The exuberance of 2015 has subsided with investors turning more cautious. A plethora of chat commerce apps have come up to make the waters muddy. There have been rumours of Lookup struggling to raise its next round of funding at a good valuation.

To a question from Tech in Asia on whether the state of the market influenced the buyout, Deepak said: “It’s a tough market and we all know it. NowFloats wanted to invest in us and continue building the future for small and medium enterprises. Our vision was to bring small and medium businesses online to form the biggest local shopping network, while NowFloats’ vision is to make small businesses bigger. After several rounds of internal discussions, we consulted with our investors and decided to accept the offer.” This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here