IIT-Kanpur backed startup that turns wasted temple flowers into incense sticks, vegan leather raises more funds

• Phool.co, a biomaterial startup, has raised $1.4 million in a funding round led by IAN Fund and San Francisco based, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation.
• The startup works on a unique idea of turning wasted flowers from temples into incense sticks through a ‘flower cycling technology’.
• The startup had also launched ‘Fleather’ – a vegan alternative to leather.

Phool.co, a biomaterial startup, has raised $1.4 million in a funding round led by IAN Fund and San Francisco based, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. The startup is also backed by IIT Kanpur, Social Alpha and others.

The startup works on a unique idea of turning wasted flowers from temples into incense sticks through a ‘flower cycling technology’. The startup also set up a plant in the holy temple town of Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh in December 2019.

Since then, the startup has gone on to launch several new products. One of the most interesting ones being – ‘Fleather’ – a leather alternative material. During the Indian festival of Holi, the startup also made news for its colours made out of flowers.

“Through our efforts, we aim to build natural alternatives to synthetic chemical-based products by using deep-tech & Research. We are perhaps India’s first natural incense brand taking a digital-first approach and have a first-mover advantage as bio-leathers are barely available in India. The funds raised will be used to advance the research and scale the operations of the company,” said Ankit Agarwal, Founder Phool.co.

For the investors, it was the company’s circular economy model that made it unique. “Innovative solutions for the sustainable development of the community is the need of the hour. Phool.co‘s circular economy model brings triple bottom benefits of environmental, social, and financial sustainability,” said Padmaja Ruparel, founding partner of the IAN Fund.

Earlier, the startup had raised ₹3.38 crore in a seed round.

SEE ALSO:

Ronnie Screwvala’s investments range from edtech to e-commerce and media

Hike brings on board OYO’s tech honcho to lead its engineering