Online florist Bloom & Wild has raised £75mln (US$120mln) from investors to expand its business after seeing its sales flourishing during the pandemic.
Funds such as General Catalyst, Burda Principal Investments and Index Ventures, an early backer of Just Eat Takeaway.com NV (LON:JET) and Deliveroo, were among the subscribers.
The proceeds will be used to enter new markets plans after the retailer expanded from the UK to France, Germany and Austria.
It is a considerable step up from the £25mln (US$35mln) raised so far, leading to an estimated market capitalisation of £64mln (US$88mln) in 2018, though it is not clear what the value of the firm is now.
London-based flower delivery start-up @BloomandWild raises $102M / £75m during Series D round to drive expansion plan across Europe. An amazing achievement#bloomandwild #seriesdfunding #indexventures #novator #latitudeventures #d4ventures #burdaprincipalinvestments https://t.co/fBuQGxIFDV
— SG Capital Ventures (@SgcVentures) January 18, 2021
The startup sends flowers through the letterbox: they are placed in flat packages that can be delivered through the door, meaning the receiver doesn’t need to be home when they arrive. Every box contains florists’ tips to arrange the content in a bouquet.
Bloom & Wild was founded by Aron Gelbard in 2014, after realising that most flower deliveries rely on the receiver being home, ruining the surprise.
Trading has flourished during lockdowns as people turned to flowers to gift their loved ones, with sales rocketing 160% thanks to 4mln boxes, reaching breakeven for the first time.
“It’s been a real joy & privilege to help keep our customers connected with their loved ones when we’ve all been missing being able to see our friends & family,” Gerbald told TechCrunch.
“We’ve certainly seen strong sales during periods of national restrictions across our markets, but sales have held strong during periods of relatively limited restrictions as we’ve retained new customers and converted many of our new recipients too.”