GoDaddy is set to buy Locu, a San Francisco-based company that helps local merchants get found online.
Around 30,000 businesses — restaurants, spas, salons, accountants, photographers and home remodeling companies — use Locu to promote their services across Locu’s partner network.
Started in 2011 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Locu reaches more than 200 million consumers per month through its partnerships with Yelp, YP.com, Foursquare, TripAdvisor and Facebook.
The acquisition advances the GoDaddy strategy to deliver digital identities that help small businesses get more customers.
“Locu is comprised of technologists who have taken the complex problem of helping small businesses get found wherever consumers are looking and are solving it through elegant, technology-based services,” said GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving.
In May, GoDaddy integrated Locu into its Website Builder. With the integration, service-oriented businesses have a simple solution to automatically create, manage and update their menu and service lists.
Over the last few months, Locu has played an incredible role in helping grow the Presence and Commerce business through its Website Builder partnership.
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, Mass., offices and is actively hiring for both locations. All of Locu’s employees are joining the GoDaddy team.
GoDaddy 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, Calif., and Kirkland, Wash., this year.
