GoDaddy, provider of domain names, web hosting and SSL certificates, has entered into an agreement to acquire Locu, a San Francisco-based company that helps local merchants ‘get found’ online. GoDaddy is used by small businesses around the world and the acquisition advances the GoDaddy strategy to deliver digital services that help small businesses get more customers.
“Locu epitomizes what GoDaddy is all about – both companies are hell-bent on helping the ‘little guy’ thrive on the Internet,” said GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving. “Locu is comprised of amazing technologists who have taken the very complex problem of helping small businesses ‘get found’ wherever consumers are looking and are solving it through elegant, technology-based services. We are welcoming some of the brightest technology minds on the planet to our GoDaddy family.”
Locu was started in 2011 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is used by more than 30,000 businesses to promote their services across Locu’s partner network. Locu reaches more than 200 million consumers per month through its partnerships with Yelp, YP.com, Foursquare, TripAdvisor and Facebook.
The acquisition follows the integration of Locu into GoDaddy’s Website Builder earlier this year. Through the integration, service-oriented businesses can automatically create, manage and update their menu and service lists from either a smartphone or computer and business owners have complete control over their digital identity.
“Over the last few months, Locu has played an incredible role in helping grow the Presence and Commerce business through our Website Builder partnership,” said Raj Mukherjee, GM of Presence and Commerce at GoDaddy. “The Locu team will play a much bigger role in helping GoDaddy’s small businesses reach their customers more effectively and at lower cost.”
Locu will continue to operate out of its San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts, offices and is actively hiring for both locations. All of Locu’s employees are joining the GoDaddy team. GoDaddy currently serves more than 11 million customers worldwide, mostly small businesses. GoDaddy employs more than 3,800 people around the world and opened new offices in Sunnyvale, California and Kirkland, Washington this year.
“We couldn’t think of a more powerful platform to accelerate Locu’s growth,” said Rene Reinsberg, CEO and co-founder at Locu. “We each have a core mission to help local businesses succeed. Our team developed deep respect for GoDaddy during our initial partnership and was impressed by the execution speed and quality, its industry-leading customer support and the passionate, experienced new management team who puts ‘product first.’ All of this further positions GoDaddy as the ‘go-to’ provider in the small business space.”
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