Amid the rapid growth of platforms like TikTok, nowadays it takes only moments for a new trend to spread like wildfire. Beyond dances, recipes and life hacks, the same concept extends into the fashion industry. Based in West Hollywood, VIAVIA is on a mission to modernize the fashion e-commerce experience, and it just secured $8 million in funding to further its solution.
VIAVIA is a video-first e-commerce platform focused on luxury fashion retail and targeting Gen Z shoppers. The company secured a seed funding round co-led by New Enterprise Associates and Basis Set Ventures. The raise follows its $1.15 million pre-seed back in February this year.
The company’s platform features a curated selection of global fashion brands alongside its own line of Italian-made fashion and streetwear. VIAVIA leverages live and short-form videos by creators to provide consumers with a digital fashion shopping experience that includes styling advice. To best reach a modern audience, VIAVIA plans to represent creators and influencers through an in-house talent team and focus heavily on video and live-streaming to bring brands’ stories to life.
“Fashion retail is undergoing a radical transformation,” Sixuan Li, VIAVIA’s co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Export-focused Asian supply chains have warped the traditional timeline from an emerging trend concept to wearable apparel. To make sense of this speed and production volume, Gen Z consumers expect brands to communicate with them through authentic, creator-led and video-first content.”
In addition to its consumer-facing solution, VIAVIA offers fashion brands and supply chains an end-to-end, AI-powered tech infrastructure. The solution works to increase order flow to local manufacturers, lower costs and shorten production lead times. The company is starting with Italy and hopes to scale the infrastructure to other luxury apparel manufacturing hubs across Europe.
“We are starting with a new, AI-powered product lifecycle management tool and using this to efficiently connect designers and brands to manufacturers in Italy and beyond,” Andrea Pasinetti, VIAVIA co-founder and VP of engineering, said in a statement. “Our mission is to use technology to eliminate process friction for creatives at every level of the fashion industry.”
