blockchain-enabled artificial intelligence (AI)-powered fashion startup mmERCH has announced a $6.4 million seed funding round.
It was led by Liberty City Ventures with participation from 6529 Holdings LLC, Christie’s Ventures and Flamingo DAO. The round was led by Paxos CEO and co-founder Charles Cascarilla, Web3 investor Mike Jacobellis, collector and investor Daniel Maegaard (Seedphrase), American entrepreneur and model Karlie Kloss, and luxury fashion designer and philanthropist Also assisted by Tory Burch of the house. The same goes for the Web3 Fashion Consortium and Red DAO.
The venture, which leverages generative algorithms to create a collection of unique pieces, will be announced at the end of 2023, with a debut collection scheduled to be released in April.
Each physical item will also be equipped with a blockchain-integrated digital twin to verify its authenticity while building a connected community through a range of unreleased experiences.
Founder and CEO Colby Mugrabis called the work “neo-couture,” and said in a statement that “this investment is a powerful step” toward that vision.
“The convergence of AI and blockchain technology in fashion presents an exciting frontier,” added Emil Woods and Murtaza Akbar, founding partners of Liberty City Ventures. “mmERCH is challenging convention in every aspect of the fashion industry, from ideation to supply chain to customer experience.”
The specificity afforded by the use of generative AI design capitalizes on consumers’ desire for uniqueness, which increases in the face of fashion’s homogeneous nature.
Indeed, the news of mmERCH’s price increase comes amid a growing backlash against fast fashion. More recently, this was evidenced by a French bill proposing penalties based on excessive production volumes and rotational speeds.
This concept has already been applied in the design realm by Trame, which leverages generative algorithms to create unique physical pieces using traditional savoir-faire combined with generative non-fungible tokens.
Similarly, the connected community aspect is being leveraged by emerging fashion brand 9dcc. 9dcc is a connected luxury fashion brand launched in 2022 by entrepreneur gmoney, who won him Phygital Brand of the Year at the PHYGICODE Impact Awards and MNTGE during the World Economic Forum in Davos. We recently collaborated with traditional denim label Wrangler.
According to mmERCH, the funds will be used to invest in the brand’s proprietary technology stack, expand its engineering team, and invest in subsequent collections.
mmERCH is supported by a team of founders, creators, collectors, curators, artists, academics and writers, with Mugrabis himself coming from the art industry.
In 2017, she founded Minnie Muse, a digital digest that fosters the interaction of art, fashion, architecture, and design. She is a member of NYU Gallatin’s Dean’s Council, a guest lecturer at Parsons School of Design, a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, and a multidisciplinary New York arts center, The・I also serve as a board member of Shed.
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