Co-founders of Phia: Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni
In January 2026, the AI shopping startup Phia, co-founded by Phoebe Gates and climate advocate Sophia Kianni, officially announced a $35 million Series A funding round. This latest injection of capital, led by Notable Capital with significant participation from Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, values the company at $185 million.
The funding marks a rapid escalation for the startup, which launched only ten months ago in April 2025 and has already surpassed one million users.
Phia is positioning itself as a “shopping agent” rather than a traditional search engine. The founders argue that modern e-commerce is fundamentally broken, often leaving consumers overwhelmed by fragmented tabs and inconsistent pricing.
Phia’s platform, available as both an iOS app and a Chrome extension, uses artificial intelligence to act as a digital personal assistant. It sits directly in the user’s shopping flow, scanning over 40,000 retail and resale websites, including heavyweights like eBay, The RealReal, and Poshmark, to instantly surface the best deals.
One of the platform’s standout features is the “Should I Buy This?” button. This tool analyzes real-time data to tell a shopper if an item is priced fairly or if an identical version is available elsewhere for less.
Beyond simple price comparisons, the AI is designed to learn a user’s specific style, size, and brand preferences over time, evolving into a proactive tool that predicts what a shopper might actually want to own.
A core pillar of Phia is the integration of the resale market into the primary shopping experience. By automatically highlighting secondhand alternatives alongside new products, the app encourages a more sustainable “circular” economy.
Kianni and Gates have emphasized that shopping secondhand can lead to an 80% carbon reduction, and by making those options easy to find, they hope to move consumers away from the cycle of fast fashion.
The financial metrics supporting the Series A round are substantial. Since its launch, Phia has reported 11x revenue growth and established partnerships with over 6,200 brands. For retailers, the app has proven to be a high-value partner; data shows that shoppers using Phia have a 50% lower return rate and a 15% higher average order value compared to traditional shoppers. This is largely attributed to the AI’s ability to provide better context on fit and value before a purchase is made.
Scaling Without “The Bank of Mom and Dad”
Phoebe Gates has been vocal about building Phia as an independent entrepreneur. Despite being the daughter of Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, she secured this $35 million round from institutional investors rather than her parents. Melinda French Gates has publicly praised this decision, noting the importance of Phoebe learning to “play the game” and raise capital on her own merit.
While Bill Gates has not invested financially, he has contributed his time to the venture. Following the initial launch, he famously worked a customer service shift for Phia to better understand user pain points, later sharing on LinkedIn that he was inspired by the team’s effort to make tech systems more efficient and accessible for the next generation of buyers.
The Roadmap Ahead
With $35 million in new capital, Phia is focused on aggressive technical scaling. The New York-based team plans to hire senior machine learning engineers to further reduce search latency and refine visual matching. Future updates are expected to include “digital closets” where users can sync their existing wardrobes, allowing the AI to suggest new purchases that complement what they already own.
By combining high-level data discipline with a creator-led marketing strategy, Phia aims to redefine the e-commerce landscape into a more intentional and, as the founders put it, “fun” experience.
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