Something very interesting is happening in the supply chain and has been going on for some time. However, it is clear that the pandemic is accelerating this trend. Tech startups are at it again eliminating intermediaries, but this time at the level of the supply chain. The opportunity is to replace the supply chain with a platform; if it does, it’s a “supply chain platform.”
The latest example of this is , a platform for the floriculture industry, has now raised a €45M Series C led by Eurazeo, a private equity and venture capital firm that has invested in other sectors such as Farfetch, and ManoMano. Capagro, AgTech and FoodTech VC also participated from outside France.
Four years of growth in flower eCommerce
With this new investment, the online flower company founded in 2017 by Sergi Bastardas, Andrés Cester and Marc Olmedillo, aims to revolutionize and promote the digitization of the sector worldwide.
“The Netherlands has a monopoly on the flower and crop market. Around 65% of all flowers and plants in the world have to physically pass through a big auction held in the Netherlands, regardless of where they are grown. This is because the industry is not digitized. So that’s the problem we want to solve: connecting stakeholders in a more direct way.«, declared Sergi Bastardas.
Chloe GiardEurazeo’s CFO, stated: “Colvin’s track record within the flower supply market has been excellent. They have shown that they can develop each quickly and profitably, while expanding into new geographies. That is the main step of his ambition to build the way forward for the flower business: as an increasing number of B2B sellers are switching to the online world, the time is unique to deliver a new common place for the flower wholesale market Colvin is leveraging years of business experience, a scalable supply chain, and a global community of trusted growers to take advantage of this $1 billion market alternative.”.
Colvin’s business model
Colvin bets on the end-to-end disintermediation of the sectorfrom farmers to online sales, to achieve greater supply efficiency, more competitive prices and, above all, better product quality.
After a record 2020, the startup team forecasts another year of growth, signaling a solid shift in user consumption trends who are looking for digital solutions to buy and send flowers to stay connected with their loved ones. Colvin expects the global sector to be worth €120bn by 2027.
Sergi Bastardasco-founder of Colvin stated: “2020 has been a year of acceleration for Colvin, a level of change that may set the pace for our progress for years to come. Our goal at Colvin is to guide the global business transformation«.
Launched (and still maintained) as a direct-to-consumer brand, Colvin has now created a professional B2B category, where they have already started connecting growers with prospects with a B2C platform: “Now we start to develop our B2B solution, where we connect our producers as well as wholesalers directly with retailers, avoiding unnecessary intermediaries with technology.«.
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