A fashion technology company out to make shopping easier for men has raised $8m (£5m) to handle growing demand for its online personal stylists.
Thread, which is already backed by Wonga founder Errol Damelin, Lovefilm co-founder William Reeve and Michael Birch of Bebo, has raised the cash from the venture capital firm Balderton Capital and other high-profile investors.
“Thread was born from a desire to make it easier for men to feel confident about the way they dress, without investing personal time shopping or learning about clothes,” said Kieran O’Neill, 28, who co-founded the company in 2012 with Ben Phillips and Ben Kucsan. He has 30 staff at the firm’s London offices and has signed up more than 200,000 users to date.
Thread works with stores such as Harvey Nichols, Liberty and Urban Outfitters to give customers suggestions based on individual tastes.
This is O’Neill’s third business. At 15, he founded a video-sharing website, which he sold within four years. He later dropped out of university to start Playfire, a social network for gamers that was sold in 2012.
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“With the first two businesses, the idea of building them and selling them quickly was attractive,” he said. “With Thread, I want to learn to be a great chief executive and build a long-lasting company.”