For an important daily routine that occurs in most Indian homes, it is surprising that no one ever thought of this benevolent idea – Online Ordering of Fresh Flowers to Offer to Our Deities. We have all grown up watching our grandparents pluck fresh flowers from our gardens to offer to our Gods during the morning pooja. For those living in apartments in big cities, we have also observed the Phoolwala/Phoolwali deliver fresh flowers every morning. This daily morning exercise comes with its routine problems like weather impact, delayed deliveries or stale flowers. Regardless of this ritual being an important part of our lives, it is surprising that no one ever thought of starting an online business for delivering fresh flowers!
As the nation got addicted to watching Shark Tank India season 1, with all the amazing ideas and brands being introduced by common people, the viewers had a lot of anticipation for Season 2 of this amazing reality series. Shark Tank India Season 2 started recently and Hoovu Fresh was the first brand to receive an amazing response. Let’s see in detail their idea, pitch, revenue, future plans, judge’s reactions, and more.
Hoovu Fresh – The Pitch
Two Bangalore-based sisters introduce their brand – Hoovu, meaning fresh, to the judges. Marigold, Jasmine, Rose are traditional desi flowers that are commonly offered in every kind of Indian pooja. They said that Indians may have different rituals for their pujas, but one that is common in every kind of prayer ceremony is flowers. They bring freshness and purity.
But as common as this practice is, the sisters further spoke about the problems Indian face in getting fresh flowers – rushing to the flower market every Monday, bargaining and then rush back home for their puja only to realize that the flowers get spoiled too quickly.
The puja industry of India is evaluated at approx. 250 lakh crores. But, until now, the reason why no company ever thought of creating a business out of pooja flowers on a large scale was the freshness quotient of flowers from farm to pooja rituals. Hoovu Fresh solved this problem by increasing the shelf life of pooja flowers from 2 days to 15 days through their flushing technique.
After discussing these problems, the founder sisters came up with their idea. They have managed to increase the shelf-life of these flowers from 2 days to 15 days with their in-house techniques and machinery.
They have already scored an order value of more than 2 million. They have tied up with 300 mandirs and 500 farmers.
They asked for 1% of their company for 80 lakhs to the Sharks.
Hoovu Fresh – Vision and Mission
Their vision is quite simple – to use Hoovu Fresh flowers in every puja in India.
They do not aim at getting into a business that will break all barriers one fine day. They realize how daunting it is to supply stale flowers to someone and ruin their puja. They know that the trust will never come back. They want to grow slowly and steadily.
About the Founders
Yeshoda and Rhea Karuturi, the company’s founders. Yeshoda is the COO of the company and looks after the day-to-day operations. Rhea is the CTO of the company and looks after the marketing and tech. They got this idea of starting a flower business because of their roots. Their family business is also in floriculture. When discussing with several management people in various temple committees, they were told that ‘freshness’ was a major problem with flowers used for puja.
Yeshoda Karuturi graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a Master in Accounting and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. After receiving her degree, she worked as the Executive Director for Karuturi Global, formerly the largest producer of roses in the world, with a focus on the Company’s international operations. In her position, she established a machinery rental company in Ethiopia with a focus on developing scalable and useful controls for the company given the technological limitations of the Ethiopian agricultural sector.
Rhea has a Bachelor of Science in Science, Technology, and Society with a focus in Communication and Media from Stanford University. She was a teaching assistant in the computer science department, where she instructed students in Java, Python, and Javascript for the CS106a course. Among other publications, she has worked at the Stanford Daily, the Bay City Beacon, the Deccan Herald, and the Times of India.
Shark Tank Judge Namita on Scalability
Namita Thappar enquired regarding the scalability of this business as she said that people are used to getting fresh flowers from the local florist. Rhea explained that their vision is not to generate competition but to make their fresh flowers available to everyone, even the local vendors so that they can sell better quality flowers to their customers.
Right from day 1, they had a competitive edge over the others and priced their flower packets at Rs. 10/- Rhea also explained that they realized that people look at this business with 40% wastage, so they were ready to pay a slight higher price for freshness. With Hoovu Flowers, the wastage quotient drops down to 2 to 3%.
Shark Tank Judge Anupam Mittal on Technology Used
Shark Anupam applauded their efforts on managing to reduce wastage from 40% to 2%. Rhea explained that they use a technology in which they control moisture and bacteria. They showcased their garland machine which is handled by 60 ladies.
She further said there is only one biological process occurring when the flowers bloom or wilt. To stop/control this biological process, they flush the packets with gas at the time of sealing. This flushing is different from nitrogen flushing. They also explained that the flushing that works for fruits and vegetables will not work for flowers. They were applauded for their extended knowledge on the subject.
Shark Tank Judge Vineeta on the Problem of Market Growth
Shark Vineeta expressed her concerns over the growth of this market seeing the generation change, but was immediately differed by shark Aman Gupta that even the young generation does puja and offers flowers.
Growth and Sales
The founders shared that they made a successful sale of Rs. 1 crore in just 1 month. They made a profit of 15 lakhs with sales of Rs.1 crore. Their average sale is 6o to 65 lakhs. They mainly sell on quick-commerce platforms just as Blinkit, Big Basket or Zepto. They get their maximum sales from these platforms. They also supply to temples. At present they have no competition in the market.
Their month-on-month growth was Rs. 1 crore in the month of August, Rs. 50 lakhs in July and Rs. 45 lakhs in June. This increase was because of the approaching festive season. They said that the sales will drop once the festive season stops, like after November.
Challenges
Shark Namita said that this business is easy to replicate. But, Rhea begged to differ. She said that while working with 500 farmers, they realized that this business is not easy. One of the reasons is that the price of the flowers fluctuates every hour. They have to manage seasonal price fluctuations without letting the shortage of supply affect them. Many people who have thought of starting this business have stopped in the initial stages only because they cannot figure out how to handle shortages and price fluctuations.
Shark Vineeta and Namita Offer
Women duo – Vineeta and Namita offered this women-powered duo of 40 lakhs equity for 4% of the business and 40 lakhs in debt at a 12% interest rate for a valuation of 10 crores.
Advice by Anupam Mittal
He advised them to keep focusing on improving their technology and not get trapped in these rounds of funding and equity shareholding as their business will get halted at one point of time. Saying this, he exited the offer gracefully.
Shark Peyush Bansal and Aman Gupta’s Offer and Investment
While the founders originally asked for 80 lakhs, they offered Rs. 1 crore for 2% equity for a valuation of 50 crores.
To this, the women judge duo offered to match the offer with 50 lakhs for 1% equity for a 50 crore valuation and 30 lakhs debt at 12% interest.
Which Offer did the Founders Accept?
They finally agreed to go forward with the offer made by Aman Gupta and Peyush Bansal. In the end, they were applauded by all the sharks and were showered with luck and blessings. The founder duo impressed everyone with their lovely venture and smart business sense.
