People’s Champion finalist 2016: Bloom & Wild

Start-up name: Bloom & Wild
Founders: Aron Gelbard and Ben Stanway
Started in: 7/7/2013
Based in: London
Business description: A ‘flowers through the letterbox’ subscription service

Shortlisted categories:

Product Business of the Year, Venture Funded Business of the Year, Retail Business of the Year

The Bloom & Wild story:

Bloom & Wild was launched in 2013 by Aron Gelbard and Ben Stanway after they noticed a gap in the floristry market.

Believing most consumers would just “turn to Google and hope for the best” when buying flowers for loved ones, the duo aimed to create the UK’s favourite flower brand while utilising technology already available for other services.

Using special letterbox packaging to allow freshly cut bouquets of flowers to be delivered through any standard letterbox, Bloom & Wild sources all its flowers direct from growers ensuring a longer vase life.

Users can place an order via its website or app with Bloom & Wild claiming the process can take “well under a minute”.

Now three years-old, Bloom & Wild has been on the receiving end of much praise with its app listed as one of Apple’s top 25 apps of the year in the UK in 2015.

It raised a Series A round of £2.5m in mid-2015, to add to the £1m of seed funding it had raised previously. Recently, it has expanded into the Republic of Ireland – the first step in its international expansion.

Why Bloom & Wild made our shortlist:

Bringing innovation and tech to a very traditional industry, Bloom & Wild is now the UK’s top rated online florist with over 10,000 reviews on all major review platforms. This achievement, coupled with the fact that its now looking to move

Where to find out more about Bloom & Wild:

Website: www.bloomandwild.com
Twitter: twitter.com/bloomandwild