UrbanStems, a flower delivery startup, announced that it has raised $12M to expand from bike-courier delivery in its 2 home markets of DC and NYC to next-day, 3rd-party delivery across the country.
It’s a sign that business is blooming at UrbanStems…
But several floral startups are also looking pretty
After this round of funding, UrbanStems has now raised a total of $27.2m.
But Bouqs, a competing flower delivery startup, has already watered its delivery platform with the nurturing liquidity of $43.1m in venture capital.
In the US, the retail flower market is an $18B enterprise, and other startups such as Farmgirl Flowers are growing.
The real competition comes from the OG flower powerhouses…
Still, the flower market is dominated by a few big Flower Powers: 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. (the parent company which owns approximately a dozen brands, including 1-800-Flowers.com), which was founded in 1976, made more than $1.15B in revenue last year, according to its annual report.
[Editor’s Note: This brief has been corrected to indicate that consumer floral sales at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. did not decline last year, but in fact increased 4.7 percent.]