Sandy Sholl and Adam Freede have a long history in the fashion industry. They’ve led MadaLuxe Group, a luxury distribution platform for fashion and accessories, since 1990.
Now, they’re introducing AI-powered virtual try-on and styling technology. Today, they launched Zelig, providing personalized technology that will eventually allow shoppers to upload a photo to see how clothes, shoes, and accessories look on their specific body type while shopping online. Initially, consumers can select from over 40 models representing diverse body types, skin tones, and hair colors.
Luxury Clothing Distributors Embrace Virtual Try On Technology and Secure a $15 Million Series A Funding
This technology employs a blend of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision to achieve this. Users of Zelig can put together various outfit combinations, save them to their profiles, and even share them before making full outfit purchases.
Virtual try-on is not a novel concept. Major corporations such as Walmart, Google, and Amazon have made investments in try-on technology. Additionally, several venture-backed startups in this sector, including Dia & Co., AIMIRR, and Revery.ai, are working on solutions that demonstrate how specific clothing items might fit and aim to reduce the rate of returns.
Sandy Sholl: Leading the Way in Fashion Innovation with Zelig
Sandy Sholl she clarified that there’s no other place where a shopper can observe themselves throughout the entire shopping process.
During our UX testing, many people forgot their initial style choices by the end of the shopping experience. Sandy Sholl commented, “We have introduced hyper-personalization based on your customers’ real engagement. It’s a competitive edge today, but it’s undoubtedly a requirement for the future.”
Sholl drew parallels between Zelig’s potential and enterprise customer relationship management tools like Snowflake and Salesforce. He pointed out, “They primarily focus on data for future reporting. We are committed to advancing this technology into a visual reporting tool, and we believe it’s the future trend in the coming decade.”
Sholl and Freede have privately funded Zelig for the past three years. However, they have now announced a $15 million Series A funding round, valuing the pre-revenue company at $100 million. The financial services firm Hilco Global led this funding round, with global luxury investor Bezikian Zareh also participating.
Jeffrey Hecktman, the CEO of Hilco Global, stated, “Sandy Sholl and Adam Freede are innovative figures in the luxury fashion industry, and I’ve had previous successful investments with them. Hilco Global is proud to partner with them once again. While many tech companies develop solutions for an industry they may not fully understand, Zelig was founded by fashion experts who have firsthand knowledge of how to address the retail industry’s most significant challenges.
Zelig plans to use the capital for technology development, specifically focusing on enhancing its personalization capabilities and adding new features.
While Sholl didn’t mention any specific brands during Zelig’s launch, considering MadaLuxe’s representation of brands like Versace, Gucci, and Cartier, it’s reasonable to expect that some of these retailers or the major department stores that carry their products may join Zelig in the future.
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