Start-ups and disruptors

Alissa Baier-Lentz and Billy McCall, co-founders, Kintra Fibers

The scourge of micro-plastic pollution continues to be a focal point for environmental groups in their campaigning against fast fashion. Enter Kintra Fibers, which is on the verge of commercialising a circular economy solution that brings “future-friendly fabrics into the mainstream” by pioneering the development of a bio-based and biodegradable polyester and eliminating the need for fossil fuel-based synthetic materials.

Entrepreneur and former Salesforce manager Alissa Baier-Lentz (COO) and nano engineer Billy McCall (CEO) founded the business in 2018. In April 2023 fashion giant H&M led a $8m (£6.6m) series A funding round for the business, which also launched commercial pilots with Reformation, Inditex and Bestseller (another investor in the start-up). The investment will allow Kintra Fibers to expand its resin and yarn production capacities, and develop new partnerships with global brands as part of an overarching ambition to accelerate the adoption of sustainable fashion on a worldwide scale.

Jack Boyle, global co-president of DTC, Fanatics

Fanatics, the ecommerce giant that dominates the US market for licensed sports team merchandise and memorabilia, now has Europe firmly in its sights.

As global president of its direct-to-consumer business, former Kohl’s executive Jack Boyle is tasked with scaling up Fanatics’ presence in key territories, including the UK – with its head office in Manchester – where the market for official sports team merchandise is currently dominated by a few players such as JD Sports and Sports Direct.

In May 2023, Fanatics struck a deal with Sky Sports to set up an online retail shop available in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Boyle is also leveraging the retailer’s vast database of 90 million sports fans who buy direct through its platform. Fanatics is now offering third-party brands the opportunity to access its first-party data to reach an engaged, loyal audience of sports fans and track changes in their behaviour over time (for instance, when they start buying football kits for babies or toddlers).

The industry should be watching Boyle closely this year as he and his team strive to build the leading global digital sports platform. In January it was reported that Fanatics is gearing up for an IPO – watch this space. 

Bobby Healy, founder and chief executive, Manna

Serial entrepreneur Bobby Healy has big plans for his latest venture Manna, a drone delivery service founded in 2019, which allows customers to order convenience items, coffee and medical supplies from local retailers and have them delivered within minutes.

Manna designs, builds and operates its own zero-emissions drones, which can make up to 280 deliveries a day in an average of just three minutes per order.

Healy is currently working with several retailers, including Tesco, to deliver goods to residents in the Dublin suburb of Balbriggan, but his plans are far greater in scope.

In September 2023, Healey, who previously founded travel tech company CarTrawler, said that Manna was “building for worldwide scale” having secured investment in March 2023 from Coke bottler Coca-Cola HBC. The deal will see the pair identify opportunities for Manna to scale across HBC’s key central and eastern European markets.

With Manna formally applying for a licence for permission to provide drone deliveries in the UK in September, Retail Week suspects an air delivery race is about to hot up between Healy’s disruptive start-up and the big tech giants. 

Colin Huang, founder, Temu

China-based marketplace Temu has taken the ecommerce world by storm since its launch in 2022. With the tagline ‘shop like a billionaire’, Temu sells a huge array of discounted and unbranded items, ranging from clothes and household goods to accessories and electricals.

Having debuted the company in the US in September 2022, founder Colin Huang – a former Google employee who owns a 28% stake in Temu’s parent company PDD Holdings, which also owns online retailer Pinduoduo – has since expanded rapidly into other key western markets including Australia, Spain and the UK.

Temu’s rate of growth in the US has been exceptional thanks, in part, to an aggressive marketing strategy that saw the business pay a reported $14m (£11.5m) for two 30-second TV adverts during the 2023 US Super Bowl in February.

Hype from across the Atlantic has since been replicated in the UK – the Temu app was the most downloaded free app in the UK in the five months following its launch in April, with 7.64 million downloads according to insight platform Data.ai, thanks in large part to a targeted brand awareness campaign on social media, notably TikTok. Temu’s website has continued to gain momentum, too; in the week before December 24, 2023, temu.com was the 13th most visited website in the UK, with 5.2 million page visits – ahead of the likes of Asos, Apple, Currys and JD Sports.

Guy Mordoch, chief executive, Cust2Mate

Guy Mordoch has had a long career developing growth strategies for technology businesses both in Israel and overseas, but he is now turning his talents to transforming the humble shopping trolley. Cust2Mate’s smart carts are catching the attention of retailers across the globe thanks to their ability to provide a more seamless shopping and checkout experience, while also reducing shrinkage.

Mordoch joined as CEO in April 2023 and by June had already struck a deal with Carrefour to install the carts in two of its Paris hypermarkets, joining retailers in Israel (Cust2Mate’s home market), Mexico, the US and Turkey in rolling out the technology.

The Cust2Mate cart is equipped with camera systems and a built-in scale, which allows it to recognise individual products and display their price on a touchscreen. Customers pay directly at the shopping trolley via its integrated card terminal, with the scale also acting as a security control.

As well as creating a more seamless in-store experience, the touchscreen gives retailers a means of notifying shoppers about current offers while it collects data on shopper behaviour, which can help inform assortment planning and marketing. Mordoch believes the technology will disrupt the retail industry on a global scale – indeed, its presence will be felt in South East Asia imminently. Mordoch and his team secured a deal in November that will see 2,000 of its smart carts rolled out to retail chains across the region by 2025.

Simone and Roxanne Oloman, founders, NIFT (Need It For Tonight)

‘Deliveroo for fashion’ is the elevator pitch for sisters Simone and Roxanne Oloman’s new on-demand fashion delivery app NIFT. The duo launched the app in June after tiring of not being able to get clothing delivered as quickly as you can get food and groceries.

Orders placed on the fashion marketplace are delivered in under 90 minutes – through a partnership with courier service Gophr – and users are able to choose products from a variety of brands and independent boutiques from across London. Real-time tracking ensures deliveries are not missed and sustainability is baked into the start-up’s values. Deliveries are made using bikes, cargo bikes or electric bikes, while NIFT has chosen not to partner with fast-fashion brands, focusing instead on ethical brands and those committed to lowering their carbon footprint.

Both founders have experience of the technology industry: Simone was previously head of retail at AI start-up Futr and Roxanne’s background is in fintech.

Moses Rashid, founder and chief executive, The Edit LDN

It has been a busy 12 months for Moses Rashid, who appears in The Tech List 2024 fresh off the back of selling his company’s majority stake to online retailer BrandAlley in January. 

Rashid spotted a gap in the market for selling limited-edition trainers, luxury streetwear and collectibles in 2020. In the years since, his business has evolved from an ecommerce platform into a multichannel business with a boutique store in Harrods, London, and concessions in Galeries Lafayette in Doha and Harvey Nichols in Riyadh.

London-based The Edit LDN sells items from brands including Nike Air Jordan, Louis Vuitton and Dior, and also acts as a marketplace for pre-loved items. A key point of difference is its proprietary technology, which facilitates same-day delivery, while a fast-growing personal shopping service offers a tailored styling experience.

The BrandAlley sale sees Rashid remain as chief executive. He said the acquisition provides “the potential to take The Edit LDN global and offer the operational infrastructure required for sustainable growth”.  

Michael Wang, founder and chief executive, Cider

China-based online retailer Cider’s zero-inventory ‘smart fashion’ model has seen it join rival Shein in the vanguard of the real-time retail revolution. Former private equity investor Michael Wang founded the business in October 2020, with the intention of creating a digital-native fashion brand with a global reach and producing minimal wastage. The concept was shaped by Wang’s first start-up, the now defunct fashion rental business YCloset, founded in 2015, which gave him invaluable insight into how the fashion industry works and a network of contacts to help him execute his new idea.

Cider factories receive real-time, data-driven feedback on which styles are in demand, allowing them to flex production as required and create tailored products at low prices. Cider says the model means that, unlike traditional fast-fashion firms, it doesn’t produce large quantities of clothes that may not sell, which allows it to deliver fashion more quickly, affordably and with less waste. It has also fostered an engaged, loyal fanbase of fashion-forward Gen Zers through its #cidergang community, who help shape decisions about what to produce via chatrooms and other forms of social engagement.

Wang has managed to attract significant investment in Cider from venture capital heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz, which has previously invested in tech giants Facebook, Airbnb and Pinterest. A move into stores appears to be next on the agenda; from November to January, Cider ran a pop-up store in New York across a 2,400 sq ft space, following a styling suite pop-up in London in July.