True Fit, the personalisation platform for apparel and footwear, raises $55M Series C

If the funding fits, keep it. True Fit, the Boston-based “personalisation platform for apparel and footwear” that helps online shoppers find clothes that fit and are to their liking, has raised $55 million in Series C funding. Leading the round is Georgian Partners, with participation from Cross Creek Captial. Existing backers Jump Capital, Signal Peak Ventures, and Intel Capital also followed on.

Working with retailers and partners in North America, U.K. and E.U. markets, in addition to recent expansions into Asia and South America, like a plethora of other startups in the space, True Fit started out trying to solve the fit problem: how to be sure clothes you purchase online will actually fit you despite not bring able to try them on before making a purchase.

To do this, the company built out a data platform that essentially matched the data of clothes you’ve already purchased with ones you are considering buying. The sell to retailers was that increased confidence that an item will actually fit can pull your purchase over the line and reduce returns, which remain a costly part of online retail.

However, as True Fit’s CEO, William R. Adler, explained in a call late last week, the company has since expanded its offering to be a broader data-driven platform play that goes beyond fit to go much deeper into offering personalised recommendations for apparel and footwear.

The company’s tech pulls in 100 or more data points from clothing ranges by major brands and retailers and then employs machine learning/AI to help consumers browse items that are to their taste — again, based on their ever-evolving purchase history — as a means to encourage them to make further purchases.

This recommendation engine is being offered up via an API, which today’s new funding will be used to further develop, to help retailers “better personalise all touch-points of the consumer journey”. This includes search, email marketing, retargeting, and in future chat and voice applications.

The same True Fit data can also be used to provide rich analytics and insights to enable retailers and brands to make smarter merchandising, marketing, and manufacturing decisions, says Adler.

Meanwhile, True Fit says its Series C financing comes at a time of “hyper growth” for the company, though it doesn’t break out very many specific numbers. It says registered users, who have a True Fit profile and whose purchasing decisions are feeding its engine, has now surpassed 55 million.