Blockchain-enabled, Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered fashion start-up, mmERCH has announced a $6.4 million seed funding round.
Led by Liberty City Ventures, participants include 6529 Holdings LLC, Christie’s Ventures, and Flamingo DAO. The round was also supported by CEO and co-founder of Paxos, Charles Cascarilla, Web3 investor, Mike Jacobellis, collector and investor, Daniel Maegaard (Seedphrase), American entrepreneur and model, Karlie Kloss, luxury fashion designer and philanthropist, Tory Burch, as well as Web3 fashion consortium, Red DAO.
The venture, which leverages generative algorithms to create collections of unique pieces, was announced in late 2023 and will release its debut collection in April.
Each physical item also features a digital twin with blockchain integration which verifies its authenticity while creating a connected community through a range of yet-to-be-announced experiences.
Founder and CEO Colby Mugrabis dubbs the output ‘neo-couture,’ towards which vision, she said in a statement, “the investment marks a strong step.”
“The fusion of AI and blockchain technology in fashion presents an exciting frontier,” added Emil Woods and Murtaza Akbar, founding partners at Liberty City Ventures. “mmERCH is challenging convention in every aspect of the fashion industry, from ideation to supply chain to the customer experience.”
The singularity resulting from the use of generative AI design taps into the consumer’s increasing desire for uniqueness in the face of the often homogenous nature of fashion.
In fact, the news of the mmERCH raise comes amidst an increasing backlash against fast fashion—most recently evinced by a French bill proposing penalties based on excessive production volumes and turnover speed.
The concept has already been applied in the design sphere by Trame which leverages generative algorithms to create unique physical pieces using traditional savoir-faire that come teamed with generative non fungible token counterparts.
Similarly, the connected community aspect has been harnessed by emerging fashion brands 9dcc, the connected luxury fashion brand launched in 2022 by entrepreneur gmoney and which won Phygital Brand of the Year at The PHYGICODE Impact Awards during The World Economic Forum in Davos, and MNTGE, which recently collaborated with heritage denim label Wrangler.
According to mmERCH, the funding will be used to invest in the brand’s proprietary technology stack, expand the engineering team, and to invest in subsequent collections.
mmERCH is supported by a team of founders, creators, collectors, curators, artists, academics, and authors with Mugrabis herself coming from a background in the art world.
In 2017, she founded Minnie Muse, a digital digest cultivating the cross-pollination of art, fashion, architecture, and design. She serves on the NYU Gallatin’s Dean’s Council, guest lectures at the Parsons’ School of Design, is a member of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and serves on the board of multi-disciplinary New York arts center The Shed.
