AI-driven personalised menswear styling and eCommerce platform Thread has opened its crowdfunding campaign to the public after success with private investors.
The campaign allows customers and the crowd to invest in Thread as part of its recent Series B funding round, giving crowd investors access to the same financial terms as the professionals.
During the campaign’s private phase, the company reached its £500,000 target in less than one hour and has now raised over £1 million as its campaign opens to the public on Crowdcube.
Thread is joining the likes of Monzo, Revolut and Mr & Mrs Smith who have all raised millions through the platform.
Thread’s $22m Series B funding round came from Balderton Capital, Beringea, Forward Partners, and H&M group’s investment arm H&M CO:LAB. It also saw participation from noted retail investor Maurice Helfgott and former Lane Crawford deputy president Sebastian Picardo.
The round brings total investment in Thread to over $40 million, with the company planning to use the new financing to accelerate the growth of the business, improve customer experience and grow data-driven private label brands.
Founded in London by Kieran O’Neill, Ben Kucsan, and Ben Phillips in 2012, Thread was part of the Y Combinator program, which helped create industry leaders such as Airbnb and Dropbox.
Its goal is to become the one-stop clothes shopping service, in the way that people use Uber to get from A to B, or Spotify to listen to music.
During the last year, Thread has signed partnerships with 50 additional partners.
New brands include Barbour, Hugo Boss, Levi’s and Ted Baker, as well as emerging labels such as Wax London, Kestin Hare and The Workers Club. The company employs around 100 people and has over a million users.
“The ability for our customers to share in the success of Thread is something that is really important to me, and crowdfunding is a great way for us to democratise our funding round by opening up the opportunity to everyone,” said CEO and co-founder Kieran O’Neill.
Thread uses AI and a personal stylist to recommend the perfect set of clothes for them. Each user gets a completely unique set of ideas, tailored to their appearance and preferences.
Customers can also browse an online store containing just clothes that suit them that learns each time a user engages.