Contxto – There’s no industry or consumer good that isn’t transformed by technology, as one company from Curitiba has come to show.
Esalflores, a major florist from Brazil through its spin-off innovation startup Esallabs, is developing tech solutions for florists by florists. Likewise, the budding business has received a capital injection of R$4 million (over US$965,000) to operate.
The enterprise seeks to change the floriculture industry through innovative services.
Sowing the seeds of a startup
As usual, the startup emerged as an answer to a particular problem. Esalflores had been deploying its own set of tech solutions. Examples included a digital catalog, payment transactions via QR codes, and even deploying flower-dispensing machines in 2015. By 2018, the company already had 50 machines throughout 20 states in Brazil.
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Esalflores reports they did what they could in handing off their tech needs to third party developers. However, it soon realized that the unique needs of florists weren’t genuinely being tendered to.
“We have always had difficulty finding specific systems for our needs within the flower shop, the few options that existed, did not match our structure, or were very limited mechanisms,” said Bruno Esperança, CEO of Esalflores.
“We tested the services of some companies, which always served us well, but narrowly, up until, three years ago, we chose to invest in an internal innovation lab.”
Growing into new markets
Since its launch, Esallabs has created solutions that go beyond floriculture. The executive added that they’re also participating in coffee and pet shop markets.
The startup was responsible for designing management programs for vending machines, cloud systems, as well as tracking services. Given the extra care flowers need such as temperature control and handling, it’s not surprising that Esallabs’ solutions can be adapted to other consumer and retail industries.
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-ML
