Curated For You (CFY), the Austin-based retail tech innovator, has secured $8.3 million in seed funding to accelerate the adoption of its AI-powered contextualized shopping platform. This strategic move, announced September 16, 2025, was led by Florida Funders with further participation from Mudita Venture Partners, Stage 2 Capital, Acronym VC, Dynamism Capital, and Dundee Ventures. As fashion personalization fatigue peaks and e-commerce faces record-high cart abandonment, CFY’s growth signals an industry-wide appetite for technology that reflects actual lifestyles, moods, and context—not just stale product categories or historic browsing data.
Problem: Legacy Personalization Isn’t Working
While retailers from Free People to Lululemon pour billions into digital innovation, most personalization tools remain reactive—pushing products based on what consumers bought weeks or months ago. That static approach misses the “why” behind today’s shopping, says CEO and co-founder Katy Aucoin. “We’re helping consumers discover fashion the way they actually think—based on plans, moods, and moments—and bringing it to life inside a tool they already use every day. It’s not just shopping; it’s discovery that feels personal”.
CFY’s technology, powered by its proprietary agentic AI, builds personalized journeys by blending a shopper’s behavior with real-time signals—weather, TikTok trends, events, travel plans, and even local festivals—matching purchases to ‘life moments.’
Product and Impact: From “What to Buy” to “Why Now”
CFY has already curated over 20,000 lifestyle-driven stories and shopping moments for a roster of partners, including REVOLVE, Lulus, Steve Madden, Saks Off Fifth, and Rent the Runway. Integration is fast—retailers can deploy the platform in as little as a week—while the business impact is clear: brands using CFY have reported 3x engagement, and multi-million dollar revenue lifts for curated campaigns and merchandising workflows.
Partnership Highlight: Microsoft Copilot
In a landmark collaboration, Microsoft partnered with CFY to embed contextual fashion curation into its Copilot AI assistant. Consumers can now ask, “What should I wear for a mountain wedding?” or “Give me outfit ideas for Paris in January,” prompting dynamic, shoppable selections powered by both retailer data and real-world context.
“By infusing shopping with relevance and empathy, we’re turning Copilot into a style companion that understands your life,” said Jennifer Myers, principal product manager at Microsoft, describing how real-time context is transforming retail discovery.
Funding, Founders, and the Road Ahead
The $8.3 million seed round reflects rapid momentum: founders Katy Aucoin and Mary Brendza, both veterans of consumer tech and data-driven marketing, are scaling up CFY’s engineering and go-to-market teams to pursue expansion into beauty, home, and travel. By training their AI on thousands of lifestyle concepts—rather than old-school tags—they’re helping retailers unlock conversion lifts of up to 6x and reclaim the 60% of potential sales lost when shoppers can’t surface the right product.
Market Implications and Why This Stands Out
- $8.3M seed enables more robust integrations with fashion, beauty, and home retailers.
- 20,000+ shoppable moments curated, 3x engagement, and greater revenue per visit.
- Major partnerships (REVOLVE, Microsoft Copilot, Lulus, Steve Madden) validate cross-industry potential.
- Agentic AI processes both buyer intent and real-world “why now”—closing the gap historic data can’t reach.
Aucoin notes, “In the coming decade, the retailers who embrace lifestyle commerce will win. Ecommerce is no longer a point-in-time transaction—it’s woven into the fabric of our daily lives.”
