Phia secures 35 million dollars in series A funding to scale AI shopping platform

Phia, the AI-driven shopping agent co-founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, has secured 35 million dollars in series A funding. Led by Notable Capital, with support from Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, the round values the 10-month-old startup at 185 million dollars.

Since its April 2025 debut, Phia has scaled to over one million users and partnered with more than 6,200 brands, ranging from contemporary labels to luxury houses.

Growth and performance metrics

Phia serves as an “alignment layer” between brands and shoppers, boasting 11x revenue growth and an 80 percent reduction in search latency. For its retail partners, the platform has delivered 13 percent rise in conversion rates, a 30 percent rise in new customer acquisition, 15 percent increase in average order value and more than 50 percent drop in return rates.

Future roadmap: intent and taste

The new capital will bolster Phia’s machine learning infrastructure, focusing on “taste-aware” large language model (LLM) agents that predict consumer preferences in real-time.

Upcoming consumer features include community-curated digital closets and individualised rewards, while brands will gain access to real-time dashboards for audience behaviour and trend forecasting.

“AI now sits between people and products,” says Hans Tung, managing partner at Notable Capital. “The challenge is understanding intent, taste, and trust in real time. Phia is building the intelligence layer for that shift.”

Co-founder Kianni noted that the firm remains a “lean, high-agency team” and will use the funds to recruit specialised talent to bridge the gap between commerce and AI.