The fashion world is always changing, and with it comes a new crop of fashion startups looking to make their mark on the industry. From online boutiques to innovative new tech, these startups are poised to change how we think about fashion.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the most promising brands in the fashion industry and explore what makes them so unique. We’ll also take a look at their funding amounts and who their investors are.
Innovative Fashion Startups to Follow
Every year, new startups pull to the forefront of their industry through exciting innovation, tech, and industry-disrupting business models. We’ve rounded up the top fashion startups of 2026 that startup lovers, investors, and aspiring entrepreneurs should follow.
Disclaimer: With so many exciting fashion companies launching and growing worldwide, we aren’t able to cover them all. Furthermore, the startups listed below aren’t officially ranked and appear in no particular order.
1. Fairly Made
- Location: Paris, France
- Founder(s): Camille Le Gal, Laure Betsch
- Founded In: 2018
- Total Funding: $21.6 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, $16.3 Million
- Investors Include: Frenchfounders, BNP Paribas, New York Fashion Tech Lab
Fairly Made is a fashion tech company focused on bringing transparency and traceability to the global apparel supply chain. The company provides brands with tools to track sourcing, environmental impact, and production processes, helping them meet growing consumer demand for sustainability and responsible manufacturing. By turning complex supply chain data into clear, usable insights, Fairly Made is enabling more accountable and environmentally conscious fashion production.
2. SuperCircle
- Location: New York, New York
- Founder(s): Chloe Songer, Stuart Ahlum, Phong Nguyen
- Founded In: 2018
- Total Funding: $46 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, $24 Million
- Investors Include: Foundry Group, RareBreed Ventures, BBG Ventures
SuperCircle is a circular fashion platform, transforming textile waste into reusable resources. It partners with brands to power take-back programs and recycle post-consumer garments into new fibers, reducing landfill waste and supporting closed-loop production systems. By building infrastructure for large-scale textile recycling, SuperCircle is helping drive the shift toward a more sustainable fashion economy.
3. Alta
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Founder(s): Jenny Wang
- Founded In: 2023
- Total Funding: $11 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Seed, $11 Million
- Investors Include: Menlo Ventures, Aglaé Ventures, Benchstrength
Alta is a digital fashion startup that builds tools to help consumers get more out of their wardrobe. The company’s AI-powered personal stylist helps users plan and experiment with outfits from the items in their wardrobe using AI avatars. The app includes a chat feature that allows users to communicate with AI stylists to brainstorm outfits based on event, lifestyle, or personal style goals.
4. Daydream
- Location: Hillsborough, California
- Founder(s): Julie Bornstein, Dan Cary, Lisa Green, Richard Kim
- Founded In: 2023
- Total Funding: $49.7 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Seed, $49.7 Million
- Investors Include: Index Ventures, True Ventures, Forerunner Ventures
Daydream is a next-generation fashion commerce platform, leveraging AI and advanced personalization to reinvent how consumers discover and shop for clothing online. The company aims to streamline product discovery and create a more intuitive, engaging retail experience tailored to individual preferences.
5. Arcade
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Founder(s): Mariam Naficy
- Founded In: 2023
- Total Funding: $42 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, $25 Million
- Investors Include: Laude Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Canaan Partners
Arcade is a tech-enabled fashion startup, modernizing how jewelry and accessories are designed and sold. Through digital tools such as an AI design assistant, it allows consumers to create personalized, high-quality pieces with greater speed and flexibility.
6. Syre
- Location: Stockholm, Sweden
- Founder(s): Susanna Campbell
- Founded In: 2023
- Total Funding: $123 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, $100 Million
- Investors Include: Giant Ventures, The Rise Fund, Norrsken VC
Syre is a sustainable materials company focused on large-scale textile-to-textile recycling. Its mission is to reduce the fashion industry’s reliance on virgin polyester by converting textile waste into new, high-quality fibers. By building advanced recycling infrastructure, Syre is working to enable systemic change in apparel manufacturing.
7. UNDERNEAT
- Location: Gurugram, India
- Founder(s): Kusha Kapila, Vimarsh Razdan
- Founded In: 2024
- Total Funding: $6 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Seed, $6 Million
- Investors Include: Fireside Ventures, Ghazal Alagh
UNDERNEAT is an intimate apparel brand focused on delivering comfortable, thoughtfully designed innerwear for modern consumers. Combining quality materials with accessible pricing, the company aims to meet everyday wardrobe needs while elevating fit and functionality in the essentials category.
8. Raspberry AI
- Location: New York, New York
- Founder(s): Cheryl Liu
- Founded In: 2022
- Total Funding: $27.6 Million
- Funding: Series A, $23.2 Million
- Investors Include: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Correlation Ventures, New York Fashion Tech Lab
Raspberry AI develops AI-powered design tools that help fashion brands accelerate product development from concept to visual prototype. Its technology streamlines creative workflows, enabling faster iteration and improved collaboration across design teams. By shortening development timelines, Raspberry AI enhances both efficiency and innovation in fashion design.
9. Bandit
- Location: Brooklyn, New York
- Founder(s): Nick West, Tim West, Ardith Singh
- Founded In: 2020
- Total Funding: $30.2 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Series B1, $16 Million
- Investors Include: Bullish, Collaborative Fund, Drive by DraftKings
Bandit is a performance apparel brand centered on the running community. It combines technical innovation with strong brand storytelling and community-driven experiences, creating products designed for serious athletes and everyday runners alike. The brand has built a loyal following by blending function, culture, and connection.
10. Simplifyber
- Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
- Founder(s): Maria Intscher-Owrang, Phil Cohen
- Founded In: 2021
- Total Funding: $17 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, $12 Million
- Investors Include: Suzano Ventures, The Helm, Straddle Holdings
Simplifyber is pioneering a new manufacturing process that transforms natural fibers into 3D-molded soft goods without traditional cut-and-sew construction. By reducing production steps and material waste, the company offers a more sustainable and efficient alternative to conventional garment manufacturing.
11. SAIZ
- Location: Berlin, Germany
- Founder(s): Marita Sanchez de la Cerda, Svenja Tegtmeier
- Founded In: 2021
- Total Funding: $4 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Seed, $2.7 Million
- Investors Include: Spread Ventures, EnjoyVenture, Salica Investments
SAIZ is a fashion tech platform that is helping consumers and brands overcome the challenges of fit and sizing when shopping online. Using AI and analytics, the platform enhances the shopping experience by providing tools to ensure proper fit for consumers looking to purchase clothing online.
12. Lizee
- Location: Clichy, France
- Founder(s): Anna Balez, Tanguy Frécon, Timothée Emery
- Founded In: 2019
- Total Funding: $10.2 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, $9 Million
- Investors Include: Lyra Ventures, Circular Innovation Fund, Alante Capital
Lizee provides white-label technology that enables fashion brands to launch rental, resale, and repair programs. Its platform simplifies the management of circular services, making it easier for retailers to adopt sustainable business models while maintaining control over the customer experience.
13. Jamble
- Location: Paris, France
- Founder(s): Louis de Jenlis, Aymar Dumoulin, Jeremy Gozlan
- Founded In: 2021
- Total Funding: $500,000
- Latest Funding Round: Convertible Note, $500,000
- Investors Include: Y Combinator, Fundamental Ventures, Pioneer Fund
Jamble is a social resale platform that brings live shopping and gamification to secondhand fashion. Users can buy and sell vintage and pre-loved items through interactive livestreams, creating a community-driven and entertainment-focused resale experience that appeals to younger consumers.
14. Ponda
- Location: Bristol, United Kingdom
- Founder(s): Julian Ellis-Brown, Neloufar Taheri, Finlay Duncan, Antonia Jara
- Founded In: 2020
- Total Funding: $3.06 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Seed, $2.5 Million
- Investors Include: Faber VC, Counteract, PDS Ventures
Ponda is a biomaterials company that creates innovative, sustainable textiles by transforming regenerative plant-based fibers into performance materials for the fashion industry. At the heart of its work is BioPuff, a lightweight, warm, and biodegradable insulation made from wetland-grown plants that sequester carbon, enhance biodiversity, and help restore damaged ecosystems. The company’s next-generation material offers a high-performance alternative to traditional synthetic and animal-derived fills while connecting ecosystem regeneration directly to textile production.
15. Flock AI
- Location: New York, New York
- Founder(s): Manvitha Mallela, Malavika Reddy
- Founded In: 2022
- Total Funding: $7.5 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Seed, $6 Million
- Investors Include: Work-Bench, January Ventures, Red Bike Capital
Flock AI is an AI-native visual commerce platform designed to help fashion, beauty, and retail brands generate high-quality, photorealistic imagery at scale. Instead of relying on traditional photoshoots, Flock’s AI analyzes a brand’s visual identity and product catalog to create customized on-model content that aligns with brand guidelines and enhances customer engagement. The platform acts as a creative co-pilot, seamlessly integrating with websites, ads, and apps to publish personalized visuals that improve conversion rates while reducing time and costs associated with content production.
16. Sparxell
- Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Founder(s): Benjamin Droguet, Ph.D.
- Founded In: 2022
- Total Funding: $8.6 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Pre-Series A, $5 Million
- Investors Include: Earth Venture Capital, Alpha Star, SWEN Capital Partners
Sparxell develops plant-based, biodegradable pigments designed to replace synthetic dyes and harmful chemicals in textiles and cosmetics. Its materials science innovations offer environmentally friendly alternatives for coloration, supporting cleaner and more sustainable production processes.
17. CAVA Athleisure
- Location: Bangalore, India
- Founder(s): Shreya Mittal, Ria Mittal
- Founded In: 2020
- Total Funding: $6.11 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, $4.42 Million
- Investors Include: Sharrp Ventures, V3 Ventures, Spring Marketing Capital
CAVA Athleisure is an activewear brand that offers performance-driven apparel with a balance of functionality, comfort, and style. Designed for fitness-focused consumers, the company aims to deliver high-quality athletic wear that supports both workouts and everyday movement.
18. LEONí
- Location: Stockholm, Sweden
- Founder(s): Nathalie Schuterman, Filippa Fuxe
- Founded In: 2024
- Total Funding: $675,000
- Latest Funding Round: Early Stage VC, $675,000
- Investors Include: Rite Ventures
LEONí is a womenswear brand centered on curated collections and refined design. With an emphasis on craftsmanship and contemporary aesthetics, the company blends boutique sensibility with modern retail ambitions to create elevated wardrobe staples.
19. ZILO
- Location: Mumbai, India
- Founder(s): Padmakumar Pal, Bhavik Jhaveri
- Founded In: 2025
- Total Funding: $19.8 Million
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, $15.3 Million
- Investors Include: Peak XV Partners, Alteria Capital, Stride Ventures
ZILO is a digital-first fashion commerce platform that supports apparel retail and brand distribution at scale. By leveraging technology and supply chain optimization, the company connects consumers with a broad portfolio of fashion offerings while streamlining operations behind the scenes.nail shape and size.
