London’s FLOWERBX blooms with multi-million pound US expansion plan

Online flower wholesaler FLOWERBX has raised a seven-figure investment as it looks to expand across the Atlantic.

The London-based company secured £4.2m ($5.5m) from a group of family offices and angel investors to support its launch in the US market this May.

It follows a £1.5m seed round in 2017 that took FLOWERBX into new European regions, including France, Belgium, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands.

The firm is headquartered in Ealing but operates logistics hubs in France and the Netherlands.

Participants in FLOWERBX’s latest funding round included Natalie Massenet and Carmen Busquets from etailer Net-a-Porter; Alex Chesterman, founder of LoveFilm and proptech Zoopla; and entrepreneur Rupert Hambro CBE.

FLOWERBX was co-founded in April 2015 by its CEO, Whitney Bromberg Hawkings, who said: “We’ve utilised our funds over the past four years to create a sound business and brand with operational scalability.

“We have built an unparalleled technical and supply chain model that provides a profitable route to market. This has fuelled significant consumer sales across all the regions we currently operate in, and is at the very core of the market opportunity which we untapped.”

She continued: “We will be using the new capital to venture into new markets such as the US whilst further expanding throughout Europe.

“It’s a testimony to the FLOWERBX team that our original investors contributed to the new fundraise, as well being able to attract new investors.”

The retail flower market is estimated to be worth $50bn across North America and Europe – and that figure is forecast to grow annually by 2% over the next five years.

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