Phool.co Voyage Story Of A Small Business Giving Life To The Ganges

On a cold winter morning in 2015, two friends and Co-Founders of the brand, Ankit Agarwal and Karan Rastogi were sitting on the bank of river Ganga. Despite the fact that the water was so dirty, they saw people drinking and bottling up the river water. As they, along with a big part of Indians, considered Ganga as a holy river both spiritually and scientifically, they wondered why it was turning into a poisonous sewer. They were also concerned about why no one is doing anything for it. They opted to not let it go like how it was and from there the Idea of turning temple waste into something useful came up. This was how Phool.co came into existence and led to its initiation.

Problems it Solved

With more than 1.1 billion followers, Hinduism is the third largest and one of the oldest religions in the world. In Hinduism, followers offer multiple things like fruits, flowers and money to god. Money and food comes in use by other people but the flowers are mostly wasted. As all the things offered to good is considered sacred, and can’t simply be thrown into landfills, so they end up in the river. The process, called Visarjana, they immerse leftover flowers in the rivers. The practice was fine when flowers were cultivated organically but due to extreme industrialisation, these flowers contain some highly poisonous element and pollute the river. Almost 16 per cent of pollutants in the rivers are flowers and other things used in puja. This not only makes the river dirty but stakes the life of all aquatic species present in the river. 

This problem seems to be small until we talk numbers. Almost two million tonnes of flowers are wasted daily across the country from which two tonnes come from Kanpur, the city on the bank of River Ganga. Understanding the problem, a start- up from Kanpur came into the frame with an idea of turning these waste flowers into useful products. Started from a very small level, the business is now recycling more than 8.4 tonnes of floral waste every day from temples across Uttar Pradesh.

This company, Kanpur flowercycling, collects flower waste from temples and mosques from over the city and turns them into various products.

Impact on Society

They made a huge impact on society by making a socio-economic venture. The idea not only nurtured the families in manufacturing but provided employment to the whole chain including delivery and support system. One part collects waste from temples and mosques, the other segregates them. Different parts of the flower are used in different products. Petals are used to make products and buds are recycled as compost. There is a huge spectrum of products that Phool.co makes. Some of which are certified natural charcoal-free incense, skin safety certified colours, rose incense cone, Phool.co vermicompost and animal-free leather loved by more than 2,50,000 customers. 

Currently, Florafoam, a substitute for harmful thermocol that is completely decomposable in the environment, is in the testing stage and is planned to launch soon. It is made of only flowers and takes years to decompose.

By recycling the waste from temples and mosques is turned into patented lifestyle products, Phool.co prevents the River Ganges from becoming a religious sewer, providing livelihoods to 1200 rural families.

Inspired by the idea of saving the environment, the company employed females from lower income families to help them. In this way the company not only helped river Ganga to revive but also helped in women empowerment. It soon came into traction and got appreciation from people all over the world. The brand claims to recycle more than 11,060 metric tonnes of flowers gathered from temples and mosques in the region till date.

Funding

As Ankit Aggarwal says, he started the business with a small amount of 72,000. When the business started doing well with the time, numerous people started funding. The business has multiple rounds of funding.

Phool.co raised $2 million in a seed round from Indian Angel Network (IAN) Fund, Social Alpha (FISE), Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation (San Francisco), and IIT Kanpur.  IAN Fund is an INR 375-crore fund, investing in innovative companies in different sectors, including Healthcare and Medical devices, Virtual Reality, Software as a Service, Marketplaces, Fin-tech, Agri-tech and Hardware.

Social Alpha, an initiative supported by Tata Trusts and the Indian government, had invested in the company when it was at the idea stage.
Phool.co also raised INR 3.38 crore in a seed round from Social Alpha and DRK Foundation, and a few others such as Balmer Lawrie.

Competition in the Market

This market does not have too many players. Still, the company, Kanpur Flowercycilng (who owns the brand Phool.co) had a neck to neck coercive fight back as its competitor from HelpUsGreen, a company owned By Karan Rastogi. Karan Rastogi is said to be one of the founders of Phool which is currently owned by Ankit Agarwal registered as Kanpur Flowercyling Private Ltd. Initially, the Facebook page of Phool.co was named HelpUsGreen.

Their Wikipedia page and some other internet sources say that the company HelpUsGreen is the parent company for Kanpur Flowercycling or the Phool.co (brand). However, there is no mention of Karan Rastogi on Phool.co’s website or Ankit Agarwal’s LinkedIn page. We tried getting in touch with Karan Rastogi, he first quoted, “Yes we both started the company as HelpUsGreen which later on changed as Kanpur Flowercycling.” A correspondence was sent to Ankit Agarwal’s official email requesting the names of founders  in the interview request questionnaire, however we did not receive a reply to the email.

Growth story

In 2015 Ankit Agarwal and Karan Rastogi saw a humongous amount of temple waste polluting river Ganges, they wanted to solve the problem to save the environment. Seeking the solution, they founded the idea of turning flower waste into useful products, especially incense cones. They used flowers from temples across India and created incense sticks and other numerous products. To strengthen the social-economic structure they employed women who were socially oppressed and helped them by empowering them with financial independence leading to a meaningful life.

A lot of resistance was encountered when temples initially refused to give flowers. Eventually, the company's founder and his team prevailed. From a small step for Mother Nature, the company has become a renowned name for luxury incense sticks. 

For this philanthropic social venture and his idea to help reach sustainable development, Ankit was invited by the United Nations for its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) initiative 2018.

Fleather, an alternative to animal leather, by Phool.co has recently been awarded PETA’s best innovation in the Vegan World.