BLOOMING

With over $190 million in funding, Floward's cofounders Abdulaziz AI Loughani and Mohamed AI Arifi are reshaping the way people shop for flowers and gifts. Today, the duo is leading an IPO plan, with the startup planning to go public in the second half of 2024.

- Nermeen Abbas

While most retail sectors have been embracing e-commerce since Amazon hit the world in the mid-90s, just a few years ago, if you wanted to shop for flowers and gifts in MENA, you had few options other than choosing from a limited number of small traditional retail stores. “As Arabs, we were raised with values of generosity and kindness, but these customs, traditions, and cultural aspects that are deeply rooted among all of us were lacking proper digital representation,” says Abdulaziz Al Loughani, Cofounder, Chairman, and CEO of online flowers and gifting company Floward. “Although there had been several attempts, we believed there was a missing solution to address the gift industry in the Arab world.”

Floward sells fresh-cut flowers and gifts, such as cakes, chocolate, accessories, and perfumes. Having been established just six years ago, Floward today has 21 fulfilment centers and employs over 1,000 people, serving over a million customers across 40 cities in nine countries, including the GCC, Egypt, Jordan, and the U.K. It has secured a total of $190.2 million in funding from investors, including STV, Aljazira Capital, Rainwater Partners, and IMPACT46, among others.

“Our process may seem simple to people, but the operations behind it are highly complex,” explains Floward’s Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Mohamed Al Arifi. “We purchase flowers directly from farmers and growers around the world —primarily South America, followed by East Africa and Europe—and ship them by air to our fulfilment centers. We also work with over 600 partners that offer a wide variety of gifts on the platform. When an order is placed, we arrange and deliver the flowers using our specialized refrigerated fleet.”