A women led startup is connecting farmers, households and neighbourhood stores through daily flower delivery, technology and an AI-powered customer intelligence system, while recording 140% year-on-year revenue growth
Patna, Bihar: India’s startup ecosystem is evolving. The next set of startups is no longer restricted to Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, or Hyderabad. Entrepreneurs across smaller cities and towns are witnessing problems in their day-to-day lives and building products and services around solutions
Floro, a women-led startup from Bihar, is disrupting one of India’s oldest traditions the daily puja with tech and organized supply chains.
As people move towards a more nuclear family setup and apartment living becomes the norm, even long standing customs are reimagined for convenience. Buying fresh flowers for the daily puja has become a chore for many households. They either have the option to go to the local market and buy them or rely on a nearby shop for regular supply.
Floro is bringing the convenience of doorstep delivery of fresh flowers for puja to regular households
From Homes to Neighbourhood Stores :
Floro operates in both B2C and B2B segments.
While the company offers a subscription based service for home delivery, it has also partnered with local grocery and retail stores nearby home, making fresh puja flowers available as an alternative to traditional flower shops.
In addition to a fresh Puja flowers, the company is looking to expand its product portfolio to include other puja essentials such as dhoop, agarbatti, Gangajal, Puja Kits, etc. The company aims to build an organized daily puja retail ecosystem.
Making Every Flower Count:
With the focus on fresh flowers, the wastage of flowers in the supply chain is a matter of concern for Floro.
Flowers are a highly perishable item and for the farmer, every unsold flower is a lost effort, time, money, and sweat. The company is working towards establishing a more organized farmer supply chain to reduce wastage and help farmers get better prices.
Floro wants to ensure that the consumer gets the best quality fresh flowers while reducing wastage in the supply chain by connecting directly with the farmers, thereby taking out middlemen.
140% Growth from a Small-City Startup:
Floro is reporting around 140% year-on-year revenue growth and has been able to create jobs in the local eco-system in Bihar across procurement, packing, delivery, sales, etc. As a small-town startup, success is defined for Floro in terms of scale, reducing wastage in the flower supply chain, and offering convenience to the modern family’s daily puja.
“The company wants to prove that to build a disruptive business in India, one does not need to be in a big city. Technology can be leveraged to reach out to customers across the country,” said Founder of Floro, Kumari Madhu.
AI at the Core of the Next Phase:
Floro is investing significantly in its technology arm.
The company has been building its in house customer intelligence system “Floro AI Customer Intelligence” to learn customer behaviour and patterns
The information would help develop insights and strategies to improve the overall customer experience.
“Through this system, we will be able to understand the customer’s buying patterns, subscription cycle, cancellations, pauses, and other behavioural patterns. These insights would help us understand the early signals of any shift in customer behaviour and let us act on it,” said Rajnish who is part of the technology team of Floro.
The company wants to use artificial intelligence to help predict demand, based on a customer’s consumption, subscription, seasonality, festivals, and so on. It would help Floro manage its inventory and procurement better, especially since flowers are a highly perishable item. For the farmers, it would help them align their production with demand, reducing wastage.
“Using AI and data, we want to focus on reducing inventory wastage and manage the supply demand equation better for the farmers and consumers. It will have a direct impact on their bottom line,” said Ayush who is also part of Floro’s technology team.
A Woman Founder from Bihar:
“At a personal level, I want to prove that being a woman entrepreneur, I can build a large scale business from a small town. We want Floro to be an equal player in the national ecosystem of startups. In addition, as a woman entrepreneur, I also want to create employment opportunities for women in Bihar,” said Madhu.
She further added, “India’s startup ecosystem is evolving, and we no longer need to be based out of metros to build a billion dollar company. We started with the idea of making fresh puja flowers available for doorstep delivery on a daily basis. It is a small step towards disrupting India’s multi-billion dollar unorganized daily puja market and making it more convenient for the modern family while creating employment opportunities for women in Bihar.”
Delhi Is the Next Step:
Having laid its roots down in Patna, Bihar, the company is looking to expand to Delhi, where the company sees immense potential with its large buyer base of apartment owners and residents. In addition to geographical expansion, the company is working towards building its portfolio of devotional products and groceries.
“Floro wants to morph from a flower delivery company to a devotional retail tech company and build a pan India supply chain network for farmers, retailers, and consumers,” said Madhu.
A small question of “why can’t I get fresh puja flowers delivered at my doorstep every morning” has led to the evolution of a multi-faceted business that connects farmers, households, local grocery stores, and uses AI and technology to reimagine India’s daily puja
