Naman Shrestha
What if you could find out how your house plants feel and what they need? Well, with Flora, you can achieve exactly that and take great care of the plants in your home. To take this patented product to the next level and make it available to more people across the world, the sole founder of Flora pitched the product to the sharks in the 14th episode of ‘Shark Tank’ season 15. With good funding and support from the right sharks, Flora can take over the world and change the way people keep their plants in check.
Flora App: Who Are They and What Do They Do?
Aabesh De was far from a plant parent to begin with. Instead, he could not take care of any plant in his sight. Although he was already frustrated with killing plants, the rose bush plant that his mother gifted him turned out to be the pivotal moment. It was a plant that her mother had kept alive for several years, but he ended up killing it in less than ten days. He also wished to have the green thumbs that his parents had. This gave him the idea of developing something like FitBit but for plants. In the coming months, he learned about electronics in detail to create a prototype motion sensor.
Next, Aabesh learned how to code in iOS so that he could also develop an app that contained information about different kinds of plants. Before getting to this, Aabesh’s professional career began after graduating with Bachelor’s Degrees from Indiana University Bloomington and Esade. Although he had big ambitions for his future, he started his career as a Fundraising Director at DECA – Munster High School Chapter. Then, for a year or so, from 2013 to 2014, he kept changing jobs every few months. During this period, he worked as a Volunteer Lab Technician in Zelhof Genetics Lab, Treasurer in Alpha Sigma Phi – Gamma Chi Chapter, Technology Consultant at Pinnacle School, and Student Speaker at Indiana University Kelley School of Business.
Aabesh also served as a Co-Founder at the Global Scholars Program before bagging a job as Project Manager – Public Relations at IU College Luminaries. Then, his first long-term stint came with Kelley Without Borders, where he worked as the President. After that, he had shorter spells with Deloitte as a Business Technology Analyst Intern, Othernet as an Account Associate, and Medline Industries, Inc. as a Business Analyst. Before he started working on Flora, Aabesh was employed as a Sales Engineering Manager at Reverb.com and a Customer Success Account Manager at Microsoft. In 2016, he founded his first company Legasus Media, which is still going strong to this day. Then, in August 2021, he officially became the founder of Flora, and the rest is history.
Flora is a plant care device at the tip of your fingers as it can identify more than 10,000 plants and give you reminders and ways to take care of your plants to make them thrive. The Flora app sends you all kinds of alerts on your mobile device, including light, temperature, moisture, humidity, and more. All you have to do is download the Flora App, sign in, and scan your plant. After identifying it, Flora gives you personalized plant care recommendations. This encourages you to add more plants to your house and take care of them in the right way.
Flora App Update: Where Are They Now?
Since the Flora App launched in 2021, during COVID-19, more than 300,000 users have registered on the app across 190 countries. Aabesh raised some initial funds from venture capital firm Long Jump in Chicago and from the founder of Reverb.com, where he used to work for a short while. By 2022, the registered plant parents reportedly added over 500,000 plants, which meant offsetting thousands of kilos of carbon dioxide from the environment. In the same year, the company introduced a new patented product Flora Pod plant sensor, for which they announced a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.
When paired with the Flora App, Flora Pods gives the plant owners constant real-time updates about their house plants. Ever since then, Flora has been advertised as a “life alert for your plants.” During a conversation with PR Newswire, Aabesh talked about the new product in detail. He explained, “Our dream is to help the horticulturally hopeless save as many plants as possible through the Flora Pod, and this Kickstarter will make that a reality! The Flora Pod lasts 3-4 months on a single 2-hour charge, can be used for multiple plants, is dirtproof/waterproof, and will tell you exactly how much light, water, temperature, and humidity your specific plant needs to thrive! We aim to help the average household plant, nurture, and grow 10 million plants through our app and our Flora Pods by 2025!”
Apart from that, Flora also deals with other plant-related products used for gardening. As of writing, all the Flora products, including Flora Pod, can be bought via its official website and on Amazon Prime. The Flora Pod is normally priced at $59.99, but due to the current sale, you can purchase it for $49.99. With a mission to spread the love for planting to millions of households and make a positive impact against global warming, Flora works towards its commitment to sustainability and a better environment.
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