From ‘not being taken seriously’ to getting Alia Bhatt as an investor, Phool.co has come a long way
According to the website of Phool.com, the founder Ankit Agarwal was sitting on the banks of the river Ganga at Kanpur when the idea of the company came to his mind. It was the day of Makar Sankranti which is celebrated by taking a dip in the holy river. Agarwal observed that temple flowers were being dumped into the river. As these flowers are filled with pesticides, the chemicals mix with the river water and create harmful compounds. After enough research and data, Agarwal came up with ways to recycle the flowers from the temple. He along with Prateek Kumar, both IIT Kanpur graduates, then founded HelpUsGreen in 2017 which was later renamed, “Phool.com”. They started making rose incense cones, Phool vermicompost, and other products using flowers from temples across India. Their first challenge was convincing people that flowers, once used, could be incorporated into new products. The idea wasn’t considered as something to be taken seriously. The team spent hours experimenting, ...