How Phia’s $8 Million Raise Signals Gen Z’s New Era of AI Fashion Shopping

Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni’s AI shopping app Phia has captured both investor and consumer attention this year, raising $8 million in seed funding while amassing 500,000 users within the five months since its launch in April 2025. The fundraising round, which closed in just three-and-a-half weeks, includes high-profile backers like Kris Jenner and Hailey Bieber, highlighting not just Gen Z’s disruptive approach, but also their ability to attract celebrity influence and venture capital at record speed.

The Making of Phia

Founded by former Stanford roommates Gates and Kianni, Phia was inspired by their own struggle to efficiently compare prices and source the best deals online. “We wanted to create something that could do all our shopping for us. Do it instantly and effortlessly, rather than all the manual price comparison and tab-opening we were doing on our computers,” explains Kianni. In response, their AI-powered app and mobile extension now…