Alta raises $20M Series A to power AI across fashion
What's the deal? Alta, a styling app founded by Jenny Wang, has raised a $20 million Series A led by Forerunner, which pre-empted the round. Menlo Ventures and Aglaé VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the Arnault family firm behind LVMH, returned as investors. Angels include stylist Meredith Koop, NFL player Paris Johnson Jr., Rylee Martell, and Karlie KlossDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
What's the endgame? Alta builds both a consumer app — modelled on the Clueless closet of mix-and-match outfits — and a B2B service for the fashion industry. It has trained 12 in-house AI models that learn fashion at the item and outfit levels.
Why now? "The fashion industry has been chasing the Clueless closet for 30 years," says Forerunner managing partner Eurie Kim, who is joining Alta's board. "The problem was never a lack of imagination. The technology simply wasn't good enough."
What's the traction? Alta now powers all AI within Rent the Runway's app, which saw a 35% jump in engagement after integrating Alta's styling and rendering. GapDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and luxury label ZimmermannDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → have also run integrations; to date users have generated 700 million outfits and 20 million avatars.
The fresh capital will fund AI infrastructure, grow Alta's team of 10 across its consumer and enterprise lines, and localise the product across markets. Wang wants Alta to be "the best possible AI provider for this space," with a longer-term vision of AI agents that review users' calendars and travel plans to shop for them.
The signal: At $20 million, Alta's round sits above the 92nd percentile of US fashion Series A deals on record. It reflects a rush of startups — alongside shopping-first rivals Phia and Daydream — racing to pin down AI's best use case in fashion.
Read more: fortune.com
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