Metaverse-renowned digital fashion retailer DressX has raised 15 million in a Series A round led by European crypto investment firm Greenfield Capital, with participation from Slow Ventures, Warner Music Group, The Artemis Fund, and Red Dao.
In a statement, the virtual garment platform announced that it will use the funds raised to expand on the interoperability of its digital fashion assets, as well as improve the performance of the startup’s dedicated DRESSX app and NFT marketplace.
”We are eager to continue building and scaling the DRESSX vision for the future and implementing new features and use-cases for digital fashion with the support of Greenfield,” Daria Shapovalova, co-founder and chief executive of the label, outlined in the release.
A portion of the investment raised will also go towards growing the community, and fostering partnerships with social and gaming platforms across both traditional Web2 media and Web3.
DressX has grown to become one of the most influential virtual fashion presences in the industry, collaborating with notable names such as Dundas at Paris Fashion Week, and high-street magnates Bershka and H&M.
Since its official launch back in August 2020, the retailer has developed and co-created over 3,500 products, including gravity-defying gowns and digitally-rendered fur boots. As a result of its pioneering and boundary-stretching campaigns, the female-led and female-founded company was named one of the finalists of the LVMH Innovation Awards in 2022, under the category “3D/Virtual Product Experience & Metaverse.”
The birth of exclusively digital and mixed-reality platforms has been met with optimism. In 2022, a global survey of over 3,000 consumers, conducted by Virtue Worldwide, reported that 47 percent of consumers are interested in digital clothes, while 87 percent have already purchased some form of digital fashion.
The scale of DressX’s funding demonstrates a widespread hunger for exploring digital identities in Web3 and other projects of this nature. In July 2022, digital wardrobe DRAUP secured over 1.5 million in seed funding, backed by investors from Ledger and Red DAO.
As the virtual landscape matures, DressX has continued to push for realization of its potential. With interoperability a key pillar for the marketplace, its virtual creations can currently be worn in AR, social media, video calls, and on avatars in Decentraland and Ready Player Me. Products developed by the DressX atelier are also available for purchase on third-party marketplaces, including those run by Meta and Zepeto.
In a post via Instagram, DressX wrote that this latest investment will help the brand “scale its vision of the future of fashion,” ushering in a new era for the marketplace.