Model, actor, news anchor and — tech entrepreneur? That's the case for celebrities Brooklyn Decker and Whitney Casey, who've added the title to their resumes after launching wardrobe operating system FINERY.
The platform uses technology to help users see their clothes at a glance, style new looks and make purchases from a number of different stores — and the company just raised $5 million in seed funding, with strong support from female investors.
“We didn’t set out targeting female investors; it just happened that women better understood the need for FINERY,” said Casey, co-founder and CEO. “Now, some of our best investors are male, but our angels who invested at the very beginning were all females.”
The co-founders are dedicated to being a deeply female-focused company, and as such are using the funding to add more women to their tech team.
“Building a team of female developers and data scientists is so important because as women, we wear so many hats — it’s important that females are creating technology to help one another manage it all,” said Decker, co-founder and chief design officer. “We see having a team of employees who understand our product and its benefits as instrumental to our expansion and development.”
FINERY users create their digital wardrobe by linking their email and individual store accounts, which then pull in all relevant purchases. In-store purchases can be added using FINERY’s Pinterest-like browser extension.
From there, the platform uses machine learning to gather data on how a user interacts with her digital wardrobe and suggests a number of ways to wear items she already has.
Put simply: this algorithm acts as your own personal stylist.
“When we read that women spend two years of their lives deciding what to wear and eight years shopping, we were shocked, and started researching solutions in the fashion tech space,” said Casey. “We found nothing to help manage this wardrobe issue.”
The app’s capabilities stretch beyond styling and organizing — it can also remind users of expiration dates on refunds, notify them of a sale and make price adjustments when applicable.
“We realized there was an opportunity to create a platform geared towards women that would help them get back some of the time, money and mindshare currently spent on their wardrobes,” said Casey.
