For three decades, brands and tech companies have been trying to hack the Clueless closet—that famous closet Cher Horowitz browses in the 1995, mixing and matching pieces to create outfits on her desktop computer. There have been various attempts over the years, but only recently with improved AI models has that dream come close to reality.
The startup Alta, founded by Jenny Wang, has built a product that most resembles that long-sought vision. And Alta just raised a $20 million Series A to keep building its app as both a fun, social consumer product and a B2B service within the fashion industry, Fortune is the first to report.
“The fashion industry has been chasing the Clueless closet for 30 years,” says Forerunner managing partner Eurie Kim, who pre-empted the round and is joining Alta’s board. “The problem was never a lack of imagination. The technology simply wasn’t good enough.”
Returning as Alta investors are Menlo Ventures and Aglaé Ventures, the firm of the Arnault family behind LVMH—a major stamp of approval in fashion. Other angel investors include stylist Meredith Koop (who joined Wang and me onstage last year at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit), NFL player Paris Johnson Jr. and Rylee Martell, and Karlie Kloss.
Alta is one of several companies trying to find the best use case for AI in fashion. While others like Phia and Daydream have focused on shopping, Alta’s starting point is styling, with shopping suggestions integrated.
And in addition to its flagship app, Alta is now growing its suite of enterprise offerings for fashion brands and retailers. It’s an appealing prospect for brands and retailers that are trying to figure out AI—go to an expert. “This is all we think about,” says Wang. “We wake up, think about the model, go to sleep, think about the model. Our goal is to be the best possible AI provider for this space.”
Alta has trained 12 in-house AI models, which learn fashion at both the item and outfit levels. Earlier this year, Alta began powering all AI within Rent the Runway’s app—and Rent the Runway saw a 35% increase in engagement after integrating Alta’s styling and rendering capabilities.
Gap is one of the first mass brands to pursue a major integration, encouraging users to try on Gap products and share their looks within the app. On the luxury end, Zimmermann used Alta to gauge response to its Paris Fashion Week show; shoppers could try on looks on their Alta avatars before they were available for purchase, helping Zimmermann judge quantities to manufacture. Other brands beyond fashion have tried integrations too—like Elf Beauty.
With its fresh $20 million, Alta will pay for AI infrastructure, increase its team of 10 people on both the consumer and enterprise side of its business, and localize its product across markets. So far, users have generated 700 million outfits and 20 million avatars.
“The holy grail of consumer AI is to have personalization to the level where your AI companion or assistant can figure out what you want before you even know you want it,” Wang says. She’s building toward a future in which users don’t just style outfits on Alta—they have AI agents that review their calendars, preferences, and travel plans and shop for them.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
The Cornell case gets a new advocate. Ashley Flowers who with her Crime Junkie franchise is the top female podcaster in the U.S., just put out a call to action to her true crime-obsessed audience. She's asking listeners to submit investigate tips for similar stories of rape or thwarted investigations on other college campuses.
A different kind of golf ad. The diaper brand Coterie is running an ad in Golf Digest, whose readership is 75% men. It's working with PGA Tour winner Max Homa on a campaign where he remembers all the mental-load tasks that have been piling up. And its unusual campaign is landing after a controversy around another golf ad; the brand Good Good suffered fallout for a video showing a woman aggressively pushed to the ground as she reached for a club.
The first women's pro baseball season in 72 years. If you didn't get the chance to see it for yourself, Bloomberg captures the magic in photos. The Women's Pro Baseball League played for six weeks in Illinois.
Succession strategy to watch. Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote has three daughters. Mariya, Halima, and Fatima (all in their 40s) have long worked for his businesses. This year they were all promoted to senior leadership positions as Dangote plans an IPO for Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals FZE that would be the largest ever in Africa.
ON MY RADAR
Did my ambition cost me $400,000—and my marriage? The Cut
The many lives of Cardi B NYT
The return of the women-only gym NYT
PARTING WORDS
"I was always told, ‘If you take a break, you can never come back’—but I think mentally I was just in a place where I needed to stop working and figure out who I was."
—Charli D'Amelio, figuring out her life and career post-teenage TikTok stardom