Thread is a London-based online menswear company that personalizes recommendations based on your style, size, and budget that has raised $22 million in Series B funding this week. Investors in this round include Balderton Capital, Beringea, Forward Partners, and H&M CO:LAB — which is the investment arm of retail giant H&M.
Retail investor Maurice Helfgott and former Lane Crawford deputy president Sebastian Picardo also participated in this round. With this round, Thread has now raised more than $40 million total.
Thread was originally founded by Kieran O’Neill, Ben Kucsan, and Ben Phillips in 2012 and the company participated in Y Combinator’s startup accelerator program. And in the funding announcement, Thread also said that it has added 50 new brand partners to its range. Some of these brands include Barbour, Hugo Boss, Kestin Hare, Levi’s, Ted Baker, Wax London, and The Workers Club.
Thread utilizes a combination of artificial intelligence and stylists to help men dress well and find perfect fitting clothes. And Thread currently has 100 employees and the service is used by one million users. About a quarter of customers now do all of their clothes shopping on Thread itself.
Several new executives have joined Thread recently. This includes Deliveroo’s former Operations Director David Scott, WorldStores’ former Chief Product Officer and Trading Director Rachel Sheridan, and former Spotify Marketing Director Tim Grimsditch.
“More than ever, guys care about dressing well, which is why menswear is a growing market. But they face an overwhelming number of options on the High Street and online. We’re used to having digital services such as Uber, Netflix and Spotify simplify other aspects of our lives, and men are now turning to Thread as their go-to solution for dressing well,” said O’Neill in a statement. “As our stylists and algorithms learn more about our customers, we’ve brought on a huge number of new brands to help each of our customers find the perfect clothes for them.”
