The problem of ‘fit’ when selling clothes online has always been a problem, and since 2009 the Estonian startup Fits.me has been trying to solve it. They are not trying to do this by modifying the sale procedures or offering free return shipping, instead they built robots that can mimic nearly every body shape. Since the company was founded, they have raised around €3 million and were already one of the best funded startups in the Baltic region.
Today, Fits.me announced a Series A round from an existing investor SmartCap and also new investors onboard: Conor Venture Partners, Fostergate Holdings Limited and The Entrepreneurs Fund. The total amount raised is €5.5 million and is a part the earlier reported investment.
The company offers two main products as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) package. The Virtual Fitting Room is the core service and you need to send your fashion products to Fits.me, where they will put them on a robot and will take anywhere between 1000 and 2500 photos of all shapes and sizes. The consumers can then view how these products would look on their virtual selves.
However this can be expensive depending on the size of the company and the garment in question, so Fits.me developed a new system to expand their market share and target market. In february 2013, they launched Fit Advisor, which can provide recommendations without any photography. This is done by comparing your body measurements to that of the garment and using algorithms to provide you with recommendations.
Heikki Haldre, co-founder and chief executive at Fits.me, said: “We are in a market that has started to move very quickly as retailers look to overcome their high street difficulties by focusing on online performance. It should be clear to everyone that we mean to do very good business by helping online clothing retailers to solve one of their most pressing problems.”
Together with the previous funding rounds, Fits.me has raised over €8 million and is now one of the top funded companies from the Baltic States.
We have earlier spoken to Andrus Oks from SmartCap and he was telling us that their sales numbers have improved dramatically following a new VP of sales recruit and other changes within the company.
This ties in closely with the investment, which is to be used to fuel international sales and marketing efforts, including expansions into France, Germany, USA and many other countries. Manu Mäkela of Conor Venture Partners tells ArcticStartup that: “buying clothes is such a subjective process – most obviously when it comes to ‘fit’. Fits.me has a sophisticated solution that works, delivers provable results, is easy for retailers to deploy and has been signed up by a growing band of respected retailers and brands, on an international basis.”
Some of these brands are: Adidas, Avenue32, Barbour By Mail, Boden, Ermenegildo Zegna, Hawes & Curtis, Henri Lloyd, Hugo Boss, John Smedley, L.K.Bennett, Mexx, Nicole Farhi, Otto, Pretty Green, Superdry and Thomas Pink. You can try some of these fitting rooms here.
