Fit Collective, a London-based fashion technology startup, has made headlines by raising £3 million (about €3.5 million) in a pre-seed round led by AlbionVC, with support from SuperSeed, True Global, January Ventures, and an Innovate UK Smart Grant. The round is reportedly the largest pre-seed ever raised by a solo female founder in the UK, a milestone that simultaneously advances innovation and representation in Europe’s startup ecosystem.
- Fighting Fashion’s £230 Billion Fit Problem
- How Fit Collective’s AI Platform Works
- Where the Funding Will Go
- Investors Bet on Retail Tech, Female Founders, and Sustainability
- The Market Opportunity and Vision
- European Fashion Tech Investment Landscape
- The Broader Impact: Environmental and Financial
- Looking Ahead
Fighting Fashion’s £230 Billion Fit Problem
Fit Collective, founded by Savile Row–trained designer Phoebe Gormley, tackles one of the industry’s most persistent, and expensive, challenges: inconsistent sizing. Sizing errors and poor fit are the leading causes of product returns, costing fashion brands an estimated $230 billion globally each year and contributing to environmental waste and diminished customer loyalty.
“Fashion retailers lose billions annually to returns driven by poor fit, creating both financial and environmental waste,” said a spokesperson from AlbionVC. “Fit Collective’s approach to solving this through data-driven sizing recommendations represents exactly the kind of practical innovation European fashion needs.”
How Fit Collective’s AI Platform Works
Fit Collective leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze sales data, fabric behavior, return rates, and customer preferences, helping brands:
- Optimize garment patterns
- Standardize sizing across multiple production runs
- Improve online product recommendations
By integrating these algorithms with retailer systems, the startup claims it can reduce returns, boost conversion rates, and enhance both profitability and sustainability outcomes for global fashion brands.
“Our goal is to eliminate the guesswork from online fashion purchases,” explained Fit Collective’s founding team. “By providing retailers with tools to offer accurate sizing guidance, we’re addressing both the business case for reduced returns and the sustainability imperative of the fashion industry.”
Where the Funding Will Go
The freshly raised £3.4 million will primarily support team growth, with targeted hires in engineering and product development. Deeper integration and partnerships with major fashion brands across Europe and the UK. Acceleration of market rollout and technology adoption, including integration with leading e-commerce platforms.
Investors Bet on Retail Tech, Female Founders, and Sustainability
The participation of major VCs and the Innovate UK Smart Grant reflects strong public and private support for technologies addressing operational and sustainability challenges in fashion.
Phoebe Gormley’s solo founder status serves as a beacon for closing the gender funding gap in tech, with multiple outlets noting that only a fraction of venture capital typically goes to teams led by women.
The Market Opportunity and Vision
Fit Collective’s mission aligns with the rising demands faced by apparel brands to cut waste, control costs, and build lasting customer trust online. With sizing issues accounting for 40% of fashion returns, new solutions are critical as online shopping eclipses legacy brick-and-mortar buying.
The company already works with reputable brands, including Rixo, Ro & Zo, and Boden, providing AI-backed sizing guidance to target consumers, improve fit, and reduce return volume.
European Fashion Tech Investment Landscape
This funding round positions Fit Collective within a new wave of venture investments targeting B2B solutions for traditional European industries.
AlbionVC views fashion retail’s sizing crisis as a compelling market opportunitySolving operational inefficiencies through scalable software is the future of the sector.
The Broader Impact: Environmental and Financial
Accurate sizing tech doesn’t just raise conversion rates—it directly helps reduce the mountains of goods discarded annually due to misfit or frequent returns. With more than £7 billion lost to returns in the UK alone, retailers stand to gain significant savings alongside lowered carbon impact. Retail and sustainability leaders anticipate increased industry adoption as economic and ESG regulations prompt companies to optimize their operations.
Looking Ahead
Fit Collective’s £3M pre-seed round marks a pivotal moment for British and European retail technology, championing women-led innovation, industry collaboration, and the application of AI to a decades-old commercial problem. As founder Phoebe Gormley and her team accelerate deployment, investors and peers will be watching closely for impact metrics across return rates, conversion gains, and overall market transformation.
