Fleek Raises $25M Series B to Scale AI-Powered Secondhand Fashion Infrastructure
Phia Accused of Fraud: Taking Affiliate Credit on Purchases It Didn’t Earn
Perfect Corp. Enters Agreement to Go Private
Klydo Shuts Down Quick-Commerce Fashion Delivery Operations
The US’s First AI Disclosure Laws Officially Go Into Effect This Month in New York
Whering Raises $7M Seed for AI Digital Wardrobe App
By Kenny Fisher
Circular fashion marketplace startup Fleek announced that it has raised $25 million in a Series B funding round, with proceeds to be used to develop AI-powered technology enabling the second-hand fashion industry scale to meet growing demand.
Founded in 2021 by Abhi Arora and Sanket Agarwal, London-based Fleek operates a B2B secondhand fashion marketplace and develops AI tools designed to digitize the sourcing, grading and trading of used apparel.
According to the company, the funding comes as demand for secondhand fashion is growing three times faster than traditional apparel, yet the infrastructure powering this $200+ billion industry is manual and fragmented, with the sector still reliant on manual processes, inconsistent grading standards and disconnected networks with little pricing transparency.
The company has developed “Fleek Sort,” a vision-language AI model trained on millions of secondhand marketplace transactions, that helps identify, categorize, grade and merchandise secondhand garments using photographs or video. The platform is currently used by graders in sorting hubs in Pakistan, India and Dubai, and in pilots launching in the UK, Europe and the U.S.
The company said that once processed, inventory is automatically listed on the company’s marketplace, where AI-powered pricing, search, recommendation and matching systems connect stock with buyers around the world. Fleek noted that each transaction generates additional data that further refines the platform’s understanding of secondhand inventory, which helps suppliers increase recovery rates, enables buyers to source inventory more efficiently, and reduces clothing waste.
By Dominic-Madori Davis
Phia, the shopping startup co-founded by Bill Gates’ daughter, Phoebe Gates, and Sophia Kianni, has been accused of a practice known as “cookie stuffing,” which may have helped the product receive commissions and credit for sales it did not actually generate, according to a Bloomberg investigation.
The report has sparked controversy and led to Phia’s suspension from Impact.com, a leading affiliate and influencer platform. Other startups have been sued over “cookie stuffing,” notably Honey, which is owned by PayPal and remains the subject of an ongoing class action lawsuit.
Founded in 2025, Phia has raised more than $40 million in funding and has a star-studded list of investors, including Khloé Kardashian and Hailey Bieber. The startup developed an app as a browser extension that works somewhat like Google Flights, but for shopping. Phia helps customers find the lowest-priced items across various retailers as well as discount codes to use when shopping. The company takes a commission on purchases made through the platform, an industry practice known as affiliate marketing.
The Bloomberg investigation, as well as findings from an independent consultant and a competitor, found that if a user shopped at an online retailer — even if they arrived at the site on their own or through another affiliate program like Wirecutter — Phia would open a new tab in the background. During the checkout process, Phia would override the referral codes from other affiliates and instead inject its own, allowing it to take credit for and potentially receive a commission on a purchase it didn’t earn.
Once the issue was flagged to Phia, a spokesperson told Bloomberg that all necessary changes had been made to fix the issue. A check by Bloomberg found the issue had been resolved. It’s unclear if the fix is enough to satisfy the retailers and affiliate partners that work with Phia.
By Arthur Zaczkiewicz
Perfect Corp., an artificial intelligence and augmented reality company known for its beauty and fashion technology, said that it has agreed to go private. The company signed a merger deal with ProjectNY, a firm controlled by Perfect Corp.‘s own founder, chief executive officer and chairwoman, Alice H. Chang.
Under the agreement, shareholders will receive $2 in cash for each share they own. This payout gives investors a premium of about 48 percent compared to the stock’s price before the company first announced it was considering going private earlier this year.
Shares of the company jumped 10 percent this morning on news of the deal to $1.91. Trading volume was heavy at 3.6 million, which compares to an average volume of 73,000.
The deal is expected to close in the final three months of 2026, though it still needs to be approved by shareholders.
A group of major investors, including the chairwoman and CyberLink, already hold over eighty percent of the company’s voting power and have agreed to vote in favor of the deal. Once the merger is complete, Perfect Corp. will officially become a private company, and its shares will no longer be traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
Bengaluru-based quick-commerce fashion startup Klydo has paused its consumer fashion-delivery business less than a year after launching.
The platform was founded in September 2025 and promised 15-to 30-minute delivery for fashion, footwear, accessories, home and gifting products in Bengaluru.
India’s rapid-fashion delivery market is proving hard to sustain for startups. The sector faces high inventory needs, low sell-through, and heavy cash burn, which make profitability difficult even if demand looks promising.
Larger players such as Myntra and Nykaa continue to test faster delivery models, using scale and logistics depth that smaller startups cannot easily match.
By Raoul Borioni
One of the nation’s first AI disclosure laws officially went into effect this month in New York. Starting June 9, any advertisement that includes an AI-generated person must include a clear label disclosing the use of a “synthetic performer.”
The state’s synthetic performer disclosure law, signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul late last year, carries a $1,000 fine for a first violation and a $5,000 penalty for every violation thereafter.
“In New York, we are setting the rules of the road instead of letting AI run the show,” Gov. Hochul said. “Requiring simple, honest disclosure when an ad uses synthetic performers protects consumers, respects our creative workforce and keeps New York at the forefront of responsible innovation.”
AI-generated synthetic performers are digitally-created media that appear as a real person. AI-generated synthetic performers are sometimes used by advertisers to sell products, and with easy access to technology, there has been an increase in the use of AI-generated performers across all forms of media, including on social media and in digital advertising.
Without notice that the content the public is viewing is not real, AI-generated synthetic performers and manipulated media can undermine one’s ability to accurately distill fact from fiction.
Whering Raises $7M, Hits 10 Million Users
·
Jul 7
After a slow Q2, Whering just made one of the more refreshing announcements in fashion tech this year. The London-based wardrobe app has closed a $7 million seed round led by eBay Ventures and the Google AI Futures Fund, and in the same breath, confirmed it has crossed 10 million users globally.
Fleek
$25M Series B on Jul 9, 2026reverse.fashion
Seven figures (undisclosed) Pre-seed extension on Jul 8, 2026Whering
$7M Seed on July 8, 2026
ProjectNY (Alice H. Chang / CyberLink)
Perfect Corp. (going private) at $2.00/share on Jul 10, 2026
Klydo on Jul 6, 2026
reverse.fashion Secures Seven-Figure HTGF Pre-Seed Extension for AI Textile Sorting
Depop makes selling free in Australia, helping people earn more from fashion resale
Carousell Reaches EBITDA Profitability as Recommerce Drives Growth
MIC launches first elastic coiled silk yarn, grows revenue 10% in Q1
Uniqlo scales circularity in collaboration with Central Saint Martins
RE&UP launches Fiber Club to drive circular materials adoption
DRESSX has launched AI virtual try-on inside the Windsor Fashions app
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