Hope Blossoms

BloomBack’s co-founder Hazel Kweh shares with Grace Ma how the social tech enterprise empowers marginalised women to gain confidence and financial independence

- Grace Ma

SOCIAL TECH ENTERPRISE BLOOMBACK has been sowing seeds of goodwill, but running an e-commerce business was never on Hazel Kweh’s radar. The company started off as a volunteer project by Hazel and her elder sister Faith, who was battling retinitis pigmentosa, a group of rare genetic disorders that further deteriorated her already limited eye sight and hearing.

“I was wondering what else I could do to encourage my sister when a girlfriend who was getting married suggested that I take home flowers after the wedding to make them into something useful,” recalls Hazel, who previously worked as a Singapore Airlines stewardess and later, a financial planner.

The sisters repurposed the flowers into smaller bouquets and went from door to door distributing them to seniors living alone in the Beach Road area. This inspired Hazel to start social enterprise BloomBack as a one-stop e-commerce platform in February last year with co-founder and chief technology officer Zech Ng. Essentially, BloomBack works with vendors such as florists and corporate gift suppliers, and is also the exclusive distributor of long-lasting preserved flowers using patented technology from Japan.