Fit Collective raises £3m in UK's largest pre-seed by solo female founder
This article covers Fit Collective, a London-based fashion technology start-up, which has raised £3m in a pre-seed round. The funding is intended to scale its AI-driven sizing tools to help brands reduce returns and improve fit, affecting retailer margins, customer retention and sustainability across the fashion sector.
London-based fashion technology start-up Fit Collective has raised £3 million in a pre-seed round, a sum the company says is the largest pre-seed ever raised by a solo female founder in the UK. The funding will be used to scale the start-up’s AI-driven sizing tools that aim to reduce returns and improve fit for brands, addressing what the company and industry sources describe as a major source of lost revenue and waste.
Why it matters
Fit Collective positions itself at the intersection of two persistent problems in fashion: inconsistent garment sizing and high return rates. The company cites an industry estimate that returns and related losses cost fashion around $230 billion annually. The issue affects retail margins, customer retention and sustainability, with the business and environmental impacts increasingly visible to boards and investors.
Inside the product
Fit Collective uses artificial intelligence to analyse returns data, fabric behaviour and sales patterns before garments go into production. The platform is described as a co-pilot for brands, helping design and production teams make sizing decisions intended to reduce returns and improve customer retention.
The platform is already being used by brands including Rixo, Ro & Zo and Boden. Rixo is a contemporary womenswear label known for patterned dresses, Boden is a long-established UK clothing retailer with a sizeable online business, and Ro & Zo is listed as a brand partner working with Fit Collective on fit optimisation. Fit Collective says these customers are seeing reductions in returns and improvements in profitability as a result of its integrations.
Founder perspective
Fit Collective was founded by Phoebe Gormley, a Savile Row-trained designer who previously launched Gormley & Gamble, which the company says was the first women’s tailoring house in Savile Row’s 200-year history. Gormley’s experience making bespoke garments for clients including lawyers and brides informed a long-standing focus on fit, which she is now seeking to scale through software rather than one-off tailoring.
Who’s backing the round
The £3 million pre-seed round includes backing from AlbionVC, SuperSeed, True Global and January Ventures, alongside an Innovate UK Smart Grant. Fit Collective says the funds will support team growth, product development and deeper integrations with global fashion brands.
In the announcement, Valerie Aelbrecht, Investment Manager at AlbionVC, said:
Fit is one of the fashion industry’s biggest blind spots, and returns are now a board-level issue costing the industry billions. We’re backing Fit Collective because they’re tackling this challenge at its roots. The team is building the kind of intelligence layer we believe will power the next wave of operational transformation in retail.
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The bigger picture
The deal sits at the crossroads of two broader trends in the UK and European startup ecosystem: growing investor interest in retail and sustainability-focused technologies, and continued attention on funding disparities faced by female founders. Public support via the Innovate UK Smart Grant also underscores a policy-level appetite to back technology that can reduce waste in supply chains.
Whether Fit Collective’s approach can scale across diverse supply chains and geographies will be watched closely by retailers, investors and policymakers tracking how technology can reduce returns, improve margins and cut waste across fashion. The round adds to a wave of pre-seed and seed investments in firms aiming to modernise operational layers of retail across the UK and Europe.
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