Flora is a tech company that provides plant care solutions through their mobile app and smart plant monitor called the Flora Pod. The company was founded by Aabesh De, who was frustrated by constantly killing plants and wanted an easier way to learn about plant care while connecting with other plant parents.
Based in Chicago, Illinois, Flora launched its mobile app in July 2021 and has quickly grown to over 270,000 registered users and $150,000 in annual recurring revenue. The app offers plant identification for over 10,000 plant species as well as customized care guides, watering reminders, and a community forum for plant parents to connect. Flora’s key product is the Flora Pod, a smart plant monitor that sends real-time alerts on a plant’s moisture, light, temperature, and other needs.
The Flora Pod is a pocket-sized, wireless sensor that can be used for both indoor and outdoor plants. It measures key plant health metrics and pairs with the Flora app to provide data-driven care suggestions for the user’s specific plant. One Flora Pod can be used across multiple plants by easily pairing and unpairing different plants in the app. The company highlights that the Pod is weatherproof, soil-proof, and kitty-proof, designed to monitor plants in any environment. It can last up to 3 months on a single charge.
In the Flora app, users can get detailed care guides tailored to their plant’s species and growing conditions. The app leverages AI to fine-tune recommendations based on the user’s microclimate, potting setup, the plant’s long-term health patterns, and other factors. Advanced features like weather integration, plant diagnosis tools, unlimited plant identification, and more are available through a subscription.
Flora also emphasizes sustainability initiatives in its business model. The company partners with OneTreePlanted to plant a tree for each Pod sold and donates 1% of proceeds to environmental efforts through Patagonia’s 1% for the Planet. The app uniquely allows users to track the carbon emissions offsets from their home plant collection.
The company was bootstrapped by founder Aabesh De in late 2020 after he struggled to keep plants alive. Frustrated by the lack of tech-enabled plant care solutions, he invented the Flora Pod himself and taught himself mobile app development to launch the Flora app. Flora has since grown to a team of 30 employees committed to connecting people with nature to combat the climate crisis.
Flora raised over $135,000 on Kickstarter in 2023 after setting an initial goal of $100,000. Before appearing on Shark Tank they also raised funding from investors including the founder of Reverb, the former CEO of PlantLink, and leaders from DynaTrap and Rheaply.
Today, Flora offers a robust plant care platform combining smart hardware, mobile software, and community support. Their products aim to make plant parenthood accessible to all, leveraging technology to help users identify, monitor, and care for any plant species. With over 200,000 engaged users, Flora is quickly becoming a leading brand in the plant-tech space.
