Online flower platform Floward closes $2.75 mln investment round led by Impact46

The flower and gift delivery app "Floward" closed its $2.75 million investment round led by Impact46 fund, with the participation of Faith Capital, BNK and many regional companies.

In 2017, Floward was introduced by Abdulaziz Alloughany where he tapped into the online presence of providing flowers. Floward emerged as a result of the prominent absence of e-commerce flower delivery in the region with 99% of the industry in GCC used to rely heavily on offline, with a market of $1.3 billion in the GCC region alone.

The online platform for flowers and gift delivery Floward was founded by the Kuwaiti entrepreneur Abdulaziz Al-Loughani, who led a number of startups prior to marking his experience in the leading flower delivery app.

The regional startup has been able to grow its current annualized revenue to over $30 million (net revenue). It has raised close to $7 million to date, including $2.75 million in a recent round that was led by Impact46 Venture Capital.

“Three founders from different backgrounds and different countries came together and dominated the gifting and flowers business over the course of 3 years,” said Abdulaziz Alomran Founding Partner of Impact46 on the investment, “This is a Khaliji dream-team”. It’s worth noting that Floward ticks all checkboxes Impact46 look for in a startup, a localized-complementary team building a high growth venture in a globally proven market. Leading the round was a decision made based on aligned goals between the two teams.

Floward saw the need in offering a fully online platform for flower delivery, as the market back then was very fragmented with no regional leader and the absence of online presence. With a unique name of “Floward”, which resembles “flower” in Arabic & English, marking the first distention of ordering flower bouquets & gifts online.

Floward followed the pure-play approach where they believed the model offers full control over the customer experience and higher lifetime value. Following this model, the online flower and gifting platform has also been able to offer a wider product mix variety that tackles different price points. Floward works with designers and influencers from the region to create different arrangements and partners with pioneer brands as complementary products such as cakes, chocolate, perfumes.

As a gift and flower online shop, Floward serves two customers, the sender, and the recipient, Floward manages both customers' experiences and expectations. “It is very

common that customers would not receive what they see online when it comes to flowers, the best way to make sure that you’re delivering what your website states, you should manage the preparation and the last mile delivery as well,” added Abdulaziz Al Loughani.

Floward is currently selling flowers and operating in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain & United Arab Emirates and plans to launch in 6 more cities in the region before the end of the year. In every country/ city served by Floward service, it has marked their name as the preferred online flower destination. “We have created a playbook that allows us to follow for every new city we launch in,” Abdulaziz commented on Floward expansion.

Regional startups have faced quiet challenges, which led them to who and where they are now. Floward expansion into various countries has not been easy, as the online flower platform had to experience and understand different customer bases in order to scale their business and build the ability to develop teams in different geographal location.