Skip to content
InternationalWhatsApp +91 78408 05748Contact
Brief

Home / About

Hands setting dried flowers and stems into a bed of preserved moss, in our workshop

About bioQ · New Delhi, since 2017

From a plastic pen factory.

Now we make corporate gifts from real preserved plants, seed paper, cork, bamboo and jute, by hand. Buy them as they are, or have them customised.

Read how it began
Saurabh Mehta, founder of bioQ, sitting cross-legged on the floor and talking with both hands, in a blue shirt
Saurabh Mehta, founder

Why bioQ exists

Pens to plant, not to bin.

In 2017, after a decade in sustainable development and social entrepreneurship, Saurabh Mehta joined his family’s disposable plastic pen business.

bioQ began as the answer to that contradiction: pens, pencils and paper with seeds in them, made to be planted once they are used up.

How we got here

One material at a time.

From seed pencils to preserved forests, and a pen made to come apart.

  1. Five plantable seed pencils

    2017

    bioQ begins

    Pens and pencils with seeds in them, made to be planted when they run out.

  2. A seed-paper desk calendar on a wooden stand

    2018

    Plantable becomes the core

    Seed pens, pencils and seed-paper calendars become the range most clients know us for.

  3. A plantable stationery kit in a jute bag

    2019 · on NDTV

    The plantable gift kit

    NDTV’s Swachh India covers our plantable gift kit.

  4. A plantable pen and pencil set in a printed kraft tube

    2021

    Orders in the tens of thousands

    50,000 plantable kits for PETRONAS, and the first of two Decembers of seed pens for Hamleys Wonderland.

  5. A seed pen

    2024

    A patent and a Gold

    An Indian patent for the NOTE pen’s biodegradable refill, and Gold at Good Design Australia for the bīj seed pen.

  6. A forest terrarium of preserved moss and flowers

    2025

    Forever Forest

    Real preserved plants, from ferns and flowers to bark and moss, go onto desks, walls and reception counters.

  7. The new NOTE pen, in wood

    2027

    The new NOTE pen

    A wooden pen made to come apart. Samples and bulk bookings from January 2027. See NOTE

Inside the workshop

Made by hand, in New Delhi.

Sketched, painted, set, counted and packed by our own team.

Finished Ganesh frames standing in a row in the workshop
Fifty frames, finished and lined up
A pile of sealed jute bags ready to go
Packed, sealed and ready to go
A hand sketching a scene in pencil beside the photograph
A calendar page, sketched from a photograph
The same sketch being painted in watercolour
Then painted in watercolour
Blue dried flowers and cork set into preserved moss
Flowers and cork, set into moss
Printed seed-paper sheets being cut and tied into sets
Seed-paper sheets, cut and tied by hand
Hundreds of printed kraft tubes in a crate
Printed tubes, counted by the crate

The workshop

Our team, at the stall and the bench.

More about how each piece is made is on the How it's made page.

The bioQ team at its Forever Forest stall at Gifts World Expo 2025
The bioQ team at its Forever Forest stall, Gifts World Expo 2025.
A knife slicing a sola pith flower
Slicing a sola pith flower, before its petals are shaped.
A white sola-wood flower set beside a piece of bark in moss
A white sola-wood flower set beside a piece of bark.
How it's made

What we have made, and for whom

The work, in numbers.

Teams at Mahindra, Google, GMR and Microsoft have ordered from us.

All case studies
Twelve wall frames, one campaign lineBespoke gifts

An energy company

Twelve wall frames, one campaign line

A campaign line set into three by two feet of moss, bark and cork, twelve times over, in 20 days.

12 frames · 3 × 2 ft each
Hamleys: 200,000+ pieces, two Decembers runningFestival

Hamleys

200,000+ pieces, two Decembers running

Seed pens in the festival's own artwork, ready for the shop floor, two Decembers running.

200,000+ pieces · 2021 and 2022
PETRONAS: 50,000 kits, nobody to explainAt scale

PETRONAS

50,000 kits, nobody to explain

A giveaway that had to explain itself, handed out at service stations.

50,000 kits · 2021
GMR: 8,000 gullaks, one for everyoneEmployee gift▶ Video

GMR

8,000 gullaks, one for everyone

A single gift for a whole company, in its own colours.

8,000 gullaks

GMR · Employee gifting · 8,000 pieces

We gave these gullaks made by bioQ to over 8,000 of our team members, and the design did work its magic.

Read the story

In the news

Covered by The Hindu, NDTV and others.

The Hindu reported our original NOTE pen as a world first in May 2024. Its refill holds Indian patent IN 539139, granted on 24 May 2024.

The NOTE story →

  • The Hindu
  • NDTV
  • The Better India
  • Zee Business
  • The Patriot
  • Global Indian
The Indian patent certificate IN 539139

What we make

Three ranges, one workshop.

We make gifts first. The material has to earn its place, and every product page names it and says what it can and cannot do.

A forest terrarium of preserved plants under a clear cover01 · Preserved plants

Forever Forest

Terrariums, frames, pen stands and awards of real preserved plants. No watering.

 Seedlings coming up through planted seed paper02 · Plantable

Seed paper, pens and pencils

Calendars, notebooks, pens and event giveaways to plant after use. Sprouting depends on seed, soil and water, so we do not promise it.

 A desk gift kit in a wooden drawer box03 · Kits and sets

Grow kits and gift sets

Sets for employees, clients and festivals, built from the pieces above.

How an order works

Four steps, one proof.

Free delivery within India. Larger orders are dated when we quote.

  1. 01

    Tell us the brief

    How many, by when, the budget per gift and who it is for.

  2. 02

    Get a shortlist

    We reply on WhatsApp within a day, with pieces and rates before GST.

  3. 03

    Approve a proof

    Your logo or design on the piece, or on its packaging when the piece is small.

  4. 04

    We make, pack and deliver

    5–7 working days for many standard orders.

Start with the brief.

How many, by when, the budget per gift. We reply on WhatsApp within a day, with a shortlist and rates before GST.

Start your briefWhatsApp us