Students Launched a Flower Marketplace in Tashkent and Raised $100,000

Abdumalikh Abdukhalimov from Uzbekistan got into startups while still a student. His very first project turned out to be a success — thousands of Tashkent residents order flowers every month through OYGUL, a marketplace he launched together with fellow IT students from university. Their young company, OY Startech, focused on providing top-quality service and a user-friendly CRM for sellers, powered by their own AI-based solution. Next on the agenda is entering the Kazakhstani market and launching their AI support agent as a standalone product.

As part of the joint project by Digital Business and Astana Hub, «100 Startup Stories of Central Asia», we spoke with Abdumalikh about the unique niche of the flower business, a funny delivery mishap involving a bouquet, and the $100,000 grant he received for winning a presidential competition.

«The idea for our startup came to us from London»

— Tell us about yourself. How did your journey into the IT industry begin?

— I grew up in the city of Karshi in Uzbekistan’s Kashkadarya region, which has a population of about 270,000. I moved to Tashkent to study Software Engineering at the New Uzbekistan University. That’s where I met Nurislombek Makhamjonkhozhizoda, who would later become my co-founder at OYGUL. Together, we built the university’s first student union, a kind of bridge between students and the administration. We were part of the very first cohort at the university, so there weren’t any such organizations at the time.

At the end of his second year, Nurislombek launched a successful startup called OYTICKET. It’s a ticket aggregator for cinemas across Tashkent. The project gained a lot of attention thanks to its perfect timing (It launched right during the height of the “Barbenheimer” craze in the summer of 2023, when two major blockbusters, Barbie and Oppenheimer, hit theaters at the same time. The contrast between the films sparked a wave of online jokes and memes, which the internet dubbed “Barbenheimer”— note by Digital Business.)

Once the aggregator had grown successfully, Nurislombek said he wanted to expand. At the time, I was working in UX/UI design, and he invited me to join him in developing a new project.

— Did you jump straight into building a flower marketplace?

— Yes, we did. Nurislombek introduced me to the two other co-founders, Temur Kasimov and Asilbek Akbarov. The idea for a flower marketplace came from Asilbek. He’s studying in London, and one day he wanted to send a bouquet to his sister in Tashkent. But it turned out to be quite difficult to coordinate with local shops and make the payment. That’s when he realized the whole process could be made much easier. That’s how OYGUL got started.

At first, I was working on UX/UI design. But in a startup like this, after three or four months, there just aren’t that many design tasks left. So I offered to take over all the operations — handling negotiations with flower shops. I already had some experience with that. Back when we were building the student union, I was responsible for most of the events and all communication with the university administration. That’s how I became the main operations manager and later the COO of OYGUL.

— Flower shops usually promote themselves on Instagram and Telegram. What makes OYGUL stand out?

— We gather a wide range of offers from flower shops across Tashkent, so you can choose the best option that fits your budget. That’s the first thing. Second, the marketplace takes care of the entire operational side. You just place an order and don’t need to follow up with the seller or check on the status. OYGUL handles the whole process from the moment you place the order to the delivery of the flowers to the recipient. Third, we focus heavily on quality and service. For example, most shops don’t send a photo of the bouquet before delivery, which can lead to misunderstandings. With us, sending a photo of the actual flowers is a required step.

«We spent around $8,000 on the startup over the course of a year»

— Was the funding for launching OYGUL money you earned from the previous startup?

— Yeah, you could say that. But to be honest, we didn’t spend much at all. All of us co-founders were just finishing university, and a lot of people around us were looking for real-world experience. So we put together our first dev team with folks who were mostly in it to build up their portfolios.

Most of our spending went toward marketing. We ended up using around $8,000 over the course of a year, which isn’t all that much for a startup.

Right now, our team has five people, including me. Asilbek and I handle communication with the shops and take care of all the operations. The other three team members, including two of the co-founders, are developers.

— What’s your financial model?

—In Tashkent, no one’s really willing to pay just to be listed in a catalog, so we earn a commission on each bouquet sold. The percentage depends on the price of the bouquet. For anything up to 500,000 soums (around 21,700 tenge), we take a 20% cut. As the price increases, the commission rate goes down. This model helped us attract a lot of sellers — we already have over 45 partners. They range from small local shops to large flower chains. We do have competitors, but most of them use a flat commission model. That becomes a problem for sellers when it comes to expensive bouquets, since they end up paying a pretty significant amount.

— Is the price of a bouquet the same when ordering through OYGUL as it is when ordering directly from the shop?

— Yes, that’s stated as a separate clause in the agreement we sign with the shops. The price must be the same for the customer, whether they order through OYGUL or directly from the store.

— Who handles the deliveries? Did you partner with any taxi aggregators?

— Launching our own delivery service would’ve been too expensive, so we outsourced it. We partnered with a large taxi company, and they assigned us a group of drivers who know how to handle bouquets carefully. They know how to pick them up and deliver them without ruining the arrangement. We also use Yandex Delivery for cases where the customer cares more about speed.

We also teamed up with a delivery service that really focuses on customer experience. That way, we avoid awkward situations like a courier showing up in a bad mood or rushing the person who’s receiving the flowers. After all, giving the bouquet is just as important as how it looks. Depending on the customer’s budget and preferences, we can adjust the delivery service to make sure it feels right for the moment.

«We handle around 1,500 orders a month, and we’re already profitable»

— What does your process for quality control and order tracking look like?

— From the very beginning, we’ve had our own support team that manually tracks order updates and, if needed, gets in touch with the seller or the courier. We also use AI at different stages of the process. Quality control actually starts as early as the product listing stage. Each shop gets free access to our CRM, where they can upload and manage their offerings.

Sellers used to skip required fields like flower type, bouquet size, and the overall description. Now, all they have to do is upload a photo of the bouquet and enter the price. Our AI takes care of the rest by recognizing the details and automatically generating the product page. This saves the shop a lot of time.

We’re also integrating a support bot into our Telegram account that will respond like a real person within 30 seconds. It will include features for both customer support and seller communication. Right now, it’s still in the testing phase, but we plan to roll out the full version next year. The system will be able to understand not just text but also voice messages. Some customers prefer to communicate that way, and the chatbot will handle it without any issues.

Our goal is to first prove the effectiveness of our AI solution through OYGUL. Once we’ve collected enough data and results, we plan to enter the market and offer it as a standalone product to other companies.

— Let’s talk numbers. Are you currently profitable?

— OYGUL is already profitable. We handle around 1,500 orders per month, and at our peak, it was 3,500. On average, we manage about 150 deliveries a day, although that number depends on the season. And I’m confident we have the highest average order value — our bouquets cost around $60 on average. According to the flower shops we work with, that’s about twice as high as what they see on other marketplaces.

«It took almost four hours to convince a woman to accept a bouquet from her husband»

— Why is the OYGUL website only accessible from a mobile device?

— In Uzbekistan, most people are used to placing orders from their phones. That’s just how the user habits are here. On top of that, we didn’t have a lot of funding when we started. We were still students at the time, so we had to focus on the most practical option first.

We focused on building the version that people actually use the most, which is mobile. But early next year, we’re launching a major update — OYGUL 2.0. Along with other improvements, it will include support for a full web version.

—Does OYGUL only offer flowers? What about other gifts like chocolates or cakes?

— We do offer those too, but they’re not especially popular. In Tashkent, people usually prefer to go to a pastry shop themselves and pick out a gift in person. It’s different in Kazakhstan. Online ordering is generally much more common there across all kinds of product categories.

— Can you share an interesting story from one of your bouquet deliveries?

— One time, a friend of ours, a businessman, ordered a huge bouquet for his wife as an apology after a fight. The problem was, she had blocked him everywhere. We spent nearly four hours trying to convince her to accept the gift and make peace. In the end, it worked. Now he orders at least two bouquets every month.

«Astana is a progressive and fast-moving city where entrepreneurs make decisions quickly and directly — it's either a clear yes or no»

— You’re currently taking part in the Market Entry program from Astana Hub and IT Park Uzbekistan. Are you planning to enter the Kazakh market?

— That’s right. Before launching OYGUL, we mapped out a roadmap: first grow in Tashkent, then expand the marketplace to other cities in Uzbekistan. But after researching the market, we changed our plans. Tashkent is a kind of hub for the flower business in the country. There’s strong competition, and everyone works hard to maintain high product quality. In other major cities we considered, like Bukhara, Samarkand, and Andijan, the situation is different. There are fewer flower shops, and many don’t have refrigeration, which is one of our key requirements for joining the marketplace.

So we started looking at neighboring countries — Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. And it was perfect timing when we found out about the launch of the Market Entry acceleration program. We're really grateful for the chance to take part. The program gave us a lot of insight into how the market works and how business is done in general. Astana is a progressive and fast-paced city where entrepreneurs make decisions quickly and directly. People here order pretty much everything online, and there are lots of marketplaces.

We’ll have at least two competitors: Wolt and Flowwow. Both are major players with a presence in dozens of countries. But Wolt doesn’t specialize in flowers. The most they do is wrap the bouquet from the outside, which can affect how presentable it looks. As for Flowwow, they’re not very visible in Kazakhstan. It’s possible they entered the market just to expand their portfolio, without putting much focus on it.

Right now, I’m working with mentors in Astana who are giving me valuable advice both on improving the marketplace and understanding the specifics of doing business in Kazakhstan. I’ve already made a lot of connections through Astana Hub. There are so many startups here, and having the chance to talk with them has been incredibly valuable.

— You also received a $100,000 grant for winning Uzbekistan’s President Tech Award. Can you share the details?

— It was actually pretty similar to the Market Entry program. We just submitted an application with details about our operations, and at some point, we completely forgot we had even filled it out. Then out of the blue, they reached out and told us we’d made it to the finals and needed to prepare for a pitch at Demo Day. In the end, we won, and the grant helped us a lot. Before that, we were in full budget-saving mode, but the extra funding allowed us to quickly grow the marketplace’s visibility through large-scale advertising and collaborations with top bloggers in Uzbekistan.

— Have you raised any investments?

—No, the grant was enough to get us on our feet. We might consider a funding round later on, once we finish developing our AI solution.

— What are the startup’s plans for 2026?

— First, we’ll focus on OYGUL 2.0 in Tashkent, introducing innovative solutions for flower shops. Second, we plan to launch our AI-based chatbot as a standalone customer support product. Third, we’ll open the marketplace in Astana, then in Almaty. If everything goes well, we’ll look at expanding into Kyrgyzstan next.