What is Thread? Thread Review

Founded in 2012 by co-founders Kieran O'Neill and Ben Phillips, Thread is a London-based men's personalized service e-commerce company that aims to help men match clothes and find the most suitable products through a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and professional stylists.

About Thread

Thread's goal is to simplify the tedious steps of men's shopping, to provide personalized product recommendations to men who want to dress more appropriately but don't like shopping, so that they can stay fashionable without having to go through the trouble of searching for clothes that suit them.

Since there are many SKUs involved and most of them are non-standard products, Thread did not adopt the "heavy" self-operated model. Thread does not need inventory, but directly reaches cooperation with retailers such as Harvey Nichols, Liberty, Urban Outfitters and brands such as Richard James, Hardy Amies Sunspel, YMC, Folk, Oliver Spencer, Jigsaw, etc., and ships directly from the official website. Thread earns the price difference of clothing.

Thread has also put a lot of effort into purchasing reviews, setting up multiple specific options, such as "I don't like the design of the collar" and "I don't like the fabric of the clothes". The purpose is to use these feedback information to further optimize the next product recommendation results, so that it can become more and more "understanding" of customers. Every week, Thread will send a batch of new personalized product promotion information to users, and the website's stylists are also on standby online to provide one-on-one consulting services.

Usage Process

1. After opening the website, users fill out a questionnaire about style, including: What occasions do you usually appear in? What brands and styles do you like? Size, price, color? Then you can upload your own photos to facilitate stylists to obtain personal information more accurately.

2. Thread's stylists will then use the data obtained from the questionnaire and the uploaded photos to come up with a rough matching plan that suits the customer. The computer will then select the most suitable product within the customer's selected price range from its 250,000 databases based on the plan given by the stylist and send it to the customer via email.

3. The technology used by computers covers more than 50 design styles, from the consumer's eye color to body shape, brand, fit, and fabric can all be controlled and modified. Consumers can purchase these products directly online.

Financing

-In July 2015, Thread announced the completion of an $8 million Series A financing round led by Balderton CAPItal and participated by several angel investors, including Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleeyman, co-founders of Google's artificial intelligence startup DeepMind, and Mirriam Lahage, former global president of eBay's fashion industry division.

- In June 2016, Thread announced that it had received a new round of financing of 4 million pounds (5.7 million US dollars). This round of financing was led by Beringea, and followed by Balderton Capital, the previous round A investor, and some previous angel investment companies.

- In October 2018, Thread announced the completion of a £16.7 million (approximately $22 million) Series B financing round, led by Hennes & Mauritz AB (HM-b.ST) (H&M), Balderton, Forward Partners and Beringea, with participation from Triplepoint Capital, DeepMind co-founders Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman, Silicon Valley angel investment fund Y Combinator and other small investors and original shareholders. After obtaining financing, Thread also announced the introduction of 50 new brand partners including Barbour, Hugo Boss and Levi's.