San-Francisco based sustainable tech company, Flora, announced that it has raised $9 million in a seed funding round, as it prepares for the launch of its sustainable e-commerce platform.

Established in 2021 by fellow immigrants from Turkey and former Goldman Sachs execs Ugur Kaya and Mithat Can Ulubay, Flora aims to greater access to sustainable products at affordable prices, through the acquisition, reinvention and growth of mission-driven brands across its marketplace and 3^rd party platforms.

Flora’s platform uses proprietary technology and algorithms to identify sustainable brands and evaluate their operational and financial performance, sustainability impact, and value creation opportunities. Once businesses are integrated onto the platform, Flora utilizes data science and expertise in sustainability, branding, marketing, advertising, supply chain, and product development to grow their sales and optimize operations.

Flora Co-Founder and Co-CEO Ugur Kaya said:

“Our genuine, impact-driven mindset and operational expertise attract exceptional mission-driven entrepreneurs who lack time, expertise, or capital to unlock the full potential of their category-leading sustainable brands. We will deploy hundreds of millions of dollars to provide a lucrative exit for these entrepreneurs and help their brands flourish globally.”

Flora has built a Lifecycle assessment tool to calculate the environmental impact of its products, and it provides quantitative and qualitative insights to customers. According to the company, its brands save 10,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually compared to conventional alternatives.

Co-Founder and Co-CEO Mithat Can Ulubay said: 

“Despite the abundance of data, traditional CPG brands and e-commerce platforms have made little progress in calculating their environmental impact. That’s why they are unable to address the needs of eco-conscious consumers. Flora is changing that by helping our customers to measure, own, and reduce their carbon footprint by switching to high-quality, sustainable products from a wide selection of independent mission-driven brands curated by Flora.”

Participants in the seed funding round include Silicon Valley Investors Lux Capital, Correlation Ventures, and Climate Capital, among others, as well as executives and investors from Amazon, Apple, Doordash, Goldman Sachs, Silverlake, and Softbank.and Gokul Rajaram. 

D4 Ventures, Esas Ventures, Paragon Ventures, and the 23 Fund also participated in this round along with notable entrepreneurs Firat & Fatih Isbecer (Pozitron), Ramakant Sharma (Livspace), Rob Gabel (Tubular Labs), and executives and investors from Amazon, Apple, Doordash, Goldman Sachs, Silverlake, and Softbank, including Google AdSense pioneer Gokul Rajaram.

Rajaram said, “When I heard about Mithat and Ugur’s wholehearted passion for sustainability and their vision for Flora, I decided to write one of my largest checks after 30 minutes,” adding:

“I am confident that Flora will reinvent the $6 trillion e-commerce industry and change consumer behavior with their scalable, profitable business model and a stellar team of operators from Amazon, Alibaba, P&G, General Mills, Constellation Brands, Blue Apron, Tinder, Publicis, McKinsey, JP Morgan, and Accenture.”