Thread is a London-based online menswear personal-styling platform that combines expert human stylists with AI to help men find and buy clothing and receive tailored recommendations without trying items on. The platform works with brand partners including Barbour, Hugo Boss, Levi’s and other emerging labels to surface curated products. Thread employs approximately 100 people and serves over 1 million users. The company plans to use new funding to continue expanding its AI team and to grow its branding efforts. As of the article, Thread had raised more than $40m in total funding. Thread was founded in 2012 by Kieran O’Neill, Ben Kucsan, and Ben Phillips. Thread is a U.K. personal styling service for men that pairs human stylists with algorithmic recommendations to personalize clothing selections. Users complete a style questionnaire and can upload photos; stylists review profiles and train Thread’s algorithm, which pulls from the 250,000 items stocked by partner brands. Recommendations are emailed to users who can rate items, and Thread offers the option to buy selections directly — the company ships items (postage included) and shares revenue with partner brands. Thread plans to hire more engineers, data scientists and other team members and to grow its list of brand partners to refine the customer experience. The service currently targets men only; Thread tested a womenswear version during Y Combinator in 2012 and intends to relaunch womenswear in the future with no set date. All stylists work full-time out of Thread’s London office. Following the new round, total funding stands at around $16 million. Thread is a London-based online personal styling service for men that blends algorithms with human stylists to generate personalized outfit recommendations. Users complete a style questionnaire and upload photos; a stylist then reviews inputs and Thread’s algorithms take into account over 50 elements of style, from eye colour and body shape to brand, fit and fabric. The company says it has served 200,000 customers since its 2012 founding. Users rate items and Thread uses that feedback to become smarter and more personalised over time. Thread says the new funds will be used to grow its customer base and expand partnerships with retailers and brands. Current retail partners include Liberty, Harvey Nichols and Urban Outfitters, and brand partners include Sunspel, Hardy Amies, Richard James, YMC, Folk, Oliver Spencer and Jigsaw.

Total raised

$36M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Oct 2018