Flora, a technology-driven sustainable e-commerce platform, emerged from stealth mode to announce that it has raised $9 million in seed funding.
Flora acquires, reinvents, and grows sustainable brands with a mission to provide greater access to sustainable products at affordable prices.
Flora’s brands serve over 300 thousand customers and save 10 thousand tons of CO2 emissions annually compared to conventional alternatives (equivalent to the impact of 400 thousand trees).
The company is led by co-founders and co-CEOs, Mithat Can Ulubay and Ugur Kaya.
The pair, immigrants from Turkey, met at Goldman Sachs, where they advised top e-commerce marketplaces and CPG brands on billions of dollars worth of transactions.
Flora use its proprietary technology and algorithms to identify sustainable brands and evaluate their operational and financial performance, sustainability impact, and value creation opportunities.
After brands are integrated seamlessly into Flora’s best-in-class operating platform, Flora grows their sales and optimizes their operations by leveraging data science and technology capabilities and its expertise in sustainability, branding, marketing, advertising, supply chain, and product development.
“Our genuine, impact-driven mindset and operational expertise attract exceptional mission-driven entrepreneurs who lack time, expertise, or capital to unlock the full potential of their category-leading sustainable brands,”
“We will deploy hundreds of millions of dollars to provide a lucrative exit for these entrepreneurs and help their brands flourish globally.”
– Ugur Kaya, Co-CEO
A growing base of conscious consumers is leading the sustainability movement.
- 77% of consumers are concerned about the environmental impact of the products they buy.
- They are engaging 8 times more with sustainable brands on social media than conventional brands.
- Yet three-quarters of consumers don’t know how or where to find sustainable products they need.
“Despite the abundance of data, traditional CPG brands and e-commerce platforms have made little progress in calculating their environmental impact.
That’s why they are unable to address the needs of eco-conscious consumers. We are changing that by helping our customers to measure, own, and reduce their carbon footprint by switching to high-quality, sustainable products from a wide selection of independent mission-driven brands curated by Flora.”
– Mithat Can Ulubay, Co-CEO
They have built a proprietary Lifecycle Assessment tool to calculate the environmental impact of all of its products and provides transparent quantitative and qualitative insights to customers.
“This is just the beginning. We are partnering with creators, influencers, and non-profits to build a mission-driven community empowered by information. We aim to help our community to live a sustainable lifestyle by expanding into areas such as fashion, food, dining, travel, and accommodation.” added Mithat Can Ulubay.
Flora is creating a better future by making sustainability easy and accessible.
Join the waitlist for the marketplace at flora.co to start taking action today, and follow us on social media at @floraforgood.
Entrepreneurs, if you have built an exceptional sustainable brand, let’s unlock its full potential together. You can apply as a brand to be featured in the marketplace.
Flora has a few criteria that all applying brands must adhere by:
- Quality Products – Every brand Flora partners with must adhere to rigorous standards to clearly identify how they are providing better and more sustainable options than mass-market alternatives
- Fair Prices – Flora strongly believes that living sustainably should be an easily accessible option – which is why they never inflate prices and only partner with responsible brands
- Better for the Planet – Flora only partners with value-driven brands that have a clear vision for improving the planet and a dedicated mission for reducing their environmental impact
