Where Phools Die, and Live Again: Recycling flowers from temples leaves everyone happy, Alia Bhatt included

Actor Alia Bhatt, who has delivered memorable performances in Hindi films such as Highway, Raazi, and Gully Boy, has now invested in a Kanpur-based company named Phool. Started by Ankit Agarwal, this start-up recycles floral waste from temples to make useful products. On 9 October, Bhatt tweeted, “Phool incense is made from recycled flowers, so it is carbon-free and helps keep our rivers clean. Phool also makes bio-leather from recycled flowers and this ‘Fleather’ is a humane alternative to leather.” She expressed her excitement on becoming a “Phool Girl” and, through Twitter hashtags, also indicated her support for the #MakeInIndia and #VocalforLocal campaigns started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She further stated, “I believe Phool incense and Fleather have the potential to truly wow the world and showcase Indian innovation globally. With my investment, I’m backing this belief and the amazing team led by a visionary founder at Phool.” She said that Phool’s focus on environment-friendly products made by women was the guiding force behind her decision. In the past, Bhatt has been part of the “Be An Angel for Animals: Adopt, Never Buy” campaign by People for the Ethical Treatments of Animals (PETA). She has also been involved with an initiative called Co-exist to urge pet lovers to take care of stray dogs and cats needing shelter. Phool has won PETA India’s Best Innovation in Vegan Fashion Award for its product Fleather. Agarwal, the founder of Phool, earned his Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the Pune Institute of Computer Technology, followed by a Master’s degree in innovation management from the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management also in Pune. He founded Phool in 2017. The start-up was incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur. Agarwal says, “It is an honour for us to have Alia Bhatt as an investor. I cannot disclose the amount but it is significant, and will help us scale up our research and development. An actor of her stature taking interest in a start-up from a Tier 3 city like Kanpur, appreciating our products, and investing in our growth is a huge source of encouragement as we expand into other cities like Varanasi and Gorakhpur, and also gear up to enter the US market.” He points out that many actors invest in businesses but few of these are social enterprises. Bhatt received Phool’s products as gifts on Diwali and Holi from her friends, and she was impressed. Apparently, she and Agarwal have been communicating for the last four months. Since Bhatt is a household name, Agarwal is optimistic that having her financial backing will help his start-up enter new markets. “Her passion for women’s empowerment, her consistent advocacy for animal rights, and the fact that she has no starry airs about her, are the three qualities that we have been struck by,” he says. Agarwal wants Phool to be known as a mainstream brand built on the efforts of women, and also invested in by women. He adds, “The women who work for Phool are sincere and hardworking. Many of them are from marginalized communities. We are delighted to work with them, and see them enjoy financial freedom.” Nachiket Kuntla, a chemical engineer who heads the Research and Development team at Phool, shares that the company began by making incense out of floral waste and then graduated to producing environment-friendly alternatives to styrofoam and leather. Kanpur is a major industrial centre in Uttar Pradesh, known for its leather, and it is also situated on the banks of the river Ganga that has to bear the brunt of pollution caused by human beings. He says, “Through experiments, we realized that agricultural waste and other cellulosic waste can be used in the same way. We get microbes to feed on nutrients from organic waste such as straw; from there the process can be directed towards making Florafoam or Fleather.” Kuntla reveals that Florafoam is biodegradable, and it is cheaper than thermocol. It can be used for packaging, and customized to various shapes and sizes. Fleather is a cruelty-free leather that “mimics the look, texture, feel, and durability of leather.” It can be used to make bags and jackets. Soon, Phool will experiment with making shoes and belts using Fleather. “The cost to the customer is the same as it would be for leather made from animal hide but we do not harm any animals in the manufacturing process. We also use vegetable tannins, so the workers in our production units are not exposed to carcinogenic effluents. The other advantage is that rivers are not polluted with hazardous chemicals,” adds Kuntla. To celebrate the festival of Diwali, Phool also produces boxes of plantable firecracker lookalikes. These are made from waste newspaper and embedded with seeds of gulmohar, basil, spinach, chrysanthemum, ashwagandha, green amaranthus, and red amaranthus.

Manoj Kumar, Founder and CEO of Social Alpha, the first organization to invest in Phool, recalls his earliest interaction with Agarwal at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Calcutta. Kumar was on a jury listening to the pitch about Phool’s business model. When he saw the spark in Agarwal, he promised that Social Alpha will help if he cannot raise funds.

Kumar says, “We are not venture capitalists. We are a non-profit that looks out for innovators, handholds them through the process of setting up a start-up, assists them with product development and operations, and makes an exit when they have found other investors or can be on their own. This kind of mentoring with skin in the game is important, and people like Ankit must have access to it when they are building their business.”

He remembers writing the first cheque for Phool, and recommending him to get co-incubated at IIT Kanpur, because he admired Agarwal’s capability for risk-taking and his endurance. He says, “As a board member of Phool, and Ankit’s mentor, I am thrilled to witness the success he has achieved.”

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Why did IIT Kanpur decide to support Agarwal’s idea? Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, Professor-in-Charge of Innovation and Incubation at IIT Kanpur, shares details of how it happened. He says, “Everyone knows that tons of flowers are offered at temples in India on a daily basis, and they turn into waste the very next day. However, no one seemed to have thought of solving this problem and designing products out of it. Ankit was able to come up with a simple and elegant idea way back in 2018, which we immediately liked.” Agarwal had a clear vision and initial funding but no infrastructure, so IIT Kanpur’s Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) stepped in. Thanks to the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) set up by Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology, SIIC had received 10 crore rupees of funding to set up a BioNEST. The infrastructure setup, as part of the BioNEST, allowed Agarwal to hit the ground running. Bandyopadhyay says, “We could see his sense of urgency, and felt confident that he had the ability to deliver. The entire research and development process took place at our incubator, and it is a great point of pride for us to see our alumnus doing so well today.” Chintan Girish Modi is a Mumbai-based writer who tweets @chintan_connect