Phia raises 8 million in seed round led by Kleiner Perkins to build AI shopping agent
Phoebe Gates (daughter of Bill Gates) and Sophia Kianni closed an 8 million seed financing led by venture firm Kleiner Perkins to expand Phia, an AI driven shopping app that compares prices, estimates resale value, and tracks deals across millions of fashion listings. The founders said the round closed quickly and will fund engineering, AI research, product development, and marketing as the startup scales from a spring launch to wider availability.
Phia launched publicly in April and the product combines a mobile app and a browser extension that searches hundreds of millions of fashion items, including secondhand listings, to surface price comparisons and resale estimates. Company executives say the tool already reaches a substantial early audience, reporting roughly 500,000 users since launch. The startup describes its aim as making shopping more data driven and transparent for younger consumers.
The funding round was led by Kleiner Perkins. Several high profile investors joined the cap table, among them Hailey Bieber, Kris Jenner, Sara Blakely, Michael Rubin, Desiree Gruber, and Sheryl Sandberg. The involvement of celebrity backers contributed to public attention and social traction around the product.
Founders and fundraising strategy
Phia is the product of a pairing that began at Stanford University. Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni built the service with a small initial team and used public documentation of their progress to attract users and investors. The co founders said they leaned on content, community building, and visible traction to accelerate fundraising. TechCrunch reports the seed raise closed in roughly three and a half weeks.
Sophia Kianni posted a summary of the raise on social media using her official X account, writing, “We raised $8M from Kleiner Perkins, Hailey Bieber, and more to build the AI Agent for Shopping.” That post outlines Phia’s immediate priorities: expand engineering capacity, develop the AI backbone, and deepen retailer and resale site integrations.
How the product works
Phia’s core proposition is a discovery and comparison engine that scans e commerce and resale marketplaces. The service claims coverage of hundreds of millions of fashion SKUs and uses machine learning to normalize product data so prices and conditions can be compared. Users receive alerts on price drops and can view projected resale value estimates before they buy. Phia positions those features as tools to reduce friction for cost conscious and sustainability minded shoppers.
Investors and market positioning
Kleiner Perkins has a long history of early stage technology investments and its lead in this round signals a bet on consumer facing AI that interacts directly with commerce. Several investor statements highlight Phia’s rapid user growth and the founders’ ability to mobilize social audiences. Celebrity investors contributed not only capital but promotional reach. Kris Jenner commented on the founders’ approach and wrote, “The way you build a brand today is simple - you build it for your audience. And that’s exactly what Phoebe and Sophia are doing with Phia.”
Competitive and regulatory context
Phia enters a crowded market of fashion search and discovery services that includes established aggregator platforms and specialist resale search tools. The company will need to preserve data quality while negotiating commercial arrangements with merchants and resale platforms. The use of large language models and vision models for product matching raises technical challenges around accuracy and transparency. Industry analysts say consumer trust hinges on clear explanations of how price estimates are generated and on reliable links to inventory sources.
Next steps and outlook
The founders say the capital will support hiring across engineering and AI research and accelerate partnerships with brands and resale marketplaces. Phia plans product refinements to improve discovery and to add features such as calendar syncing and personalized shopping assistants. Investors will monitor user retention and conversion metrics to gauge whether the early surge in downloads translates into consistent engagement and monetization.
The seed round places Phia among a wave of startups that apply generative and retrieval augmented AI to consumer shopping. The company’s high profile backers and quick fundraising timeline underscore investor appetite for consumer AI products that combine machine learning with social distribution.
Observers will watch whether Phia turns early buzz into durable product value for shoppers and sustainable commercial partnerships with retailers.
