Alia Bhatt invests in Innovative Eco-Friendly Startup Phool.co

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 7 October 2021

Actress and Entrepreneur Alia Bhatt has invested in an innovative startup, Phool.co. This innovation aims on manufacturing charcoal-free incense and other healthified products and broaden in flowercycling technologies to reuse and modernize cellulose waste.

Phool.co had already raised $2 million in a seed round from Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation (San Francisco), IAN Fund, IIT Kanpur and Social Alpha (FISE).

Phool.co is an eco-friendly start-up founded by Ankit Agarwal, an engineering graduate in July 2017. It focuses on collecting floral waste and converts into charcoal incense and a wide range of healthified products.

With advance scientific research, the start-up has gained victory in the vegan world by discovering an alternative to animal leather called “Fleather”. It was a significant innovation in the vegan world which was recently observed and awarded by PETA.

Ankit Agarwal, Founder of Phool.co said, “At Phool.co, we aim to drive systemic change through innovation. Alia's investment is a validation of our efforts and firmly sets us on a path to build a global success story from a Tier III city. The investment and support will help us expand our footprint globally and also step up the pace of R&D. I can proudly say, Phool.co is a business built, led and now even invested in by women.”

Alia Bhatt, well-famed for her eco-initiatives, said, “Phool incense really stands out for its fine natural fragrances and amazing packaging. I admire the founder’s vision of making incense and bio-leather from recycled flowers that contribute to keeping our rivers clean, creating a humane alternative to leather, and providing employment to women in India’s heartland.”

Director of IIT Kanpur, Dr AbhayKarandikar said “IIT Kanpur is proud to be a partner of Phool. I am glad that we could help the company technologically but at the same time, I must acknowledge that PHOOL.co brought a lot of visibility to our incubator and the subsequent stupendous success of SIIC is at least in part due to its success."

Manoj Kumar, Founding Partner of Social Alpha (FISE), has shared his view on the latest innovation. He said, “Ankit has truly demonstrated how passionate entrepreneurs can solve some of our most complex problems with their disruptive innovations. The team has the rare combination of empathy, audacious goals, extraordinary resilience, and flawless execution to build and scale a sustainable business model. Phool.co will only grow bigger with time”

 Alia Bhatt had also invested in Nykaa, the cosmetic and fashionista retailer. She decided to invest in it because of an Indian brand, worldwide expansion, and established by women.