E-commerce company True&Co launched last year to apply a bit of personalization and technology to aid women in their searches for new bras. The company just raised a little bit more funding to invest more in its algorithm for matching customers with bras that not only fit well but also look good.
True&Co has raised another $4 million in funding from a series of new investors that include Crosslink, VegasTechFund, Pejman Nozad, and FundersClub. True&Co had previously raised $2 million in seed funding from investors that included First Round Capital, SoftTechVC, Softbank, and Aileen Lee’s Cowboy Ventures, all of which also participated in the round.
The company hopes to fix the seemingly impossible problem of finding a bra that fits — and do so with technology. New users to the site take a “fit quiz,” which helps the company get a feel for the user’s true size, body type, and the bra that will look best based on answers to a bunch of questions about how they usually fit. Once that’s done, the company provides a personalized home try-on kit with free shipping and returns that allows customers to find products that best suit them.
While most women tend to find one brand and style that fits and then stick with it, True&Co hopes that its personalization engine will open customers up to trying out new types of bras that complement their body types, according to founder Michelle Lam.
That algorithm is key to the company’s success, which explains why True&Co recently hired CTO Brian Emmett, who was previously the director of engineering at Netflix. Chris Pouliot, one of its advisers, is also on the Netflix engineering and algorithm team.
Just as Netflix’s recommendation engine highlights titles that users might not have known about, but match their individual tastes, the True&Co algorithm is designed to connect users with styles and bras they might not have tried before. For most women, it would be considered risky to order a bra on the web from a brand they don’t know, but True&Co hopes to eliminate that fear and connect customers with new products.
That plan seems to be working, as Lam says customers are coming back to the site and “not just buying the same old bras” that they know fit well, but trying out new ones. As a result, True&Co continues to add new inventory, including products from boutique brands that customers have never tried before.
With the new funding, True&Co is looking to invest more heavily in its technology to improve the algorithm and find more interesting applications for it. The company now has 20 employees in San Francisco and New York, but is looking to grow the team to help scale its business.