Julie Bornstein’s New AI Start-Up Raises $50-Million Seed Round

Daydream, a brand new AI-based buying platform from retail and e-commerce veteran Julie Bornstein, has raised $50 million in seed funding.

Co-leading the spherical have been Forerunner Ventures and Index Ventures, whereas GV — the venture-capital arm of Google guardian Alphabet Inc. — and True Ventures additionally participated.

Full particulars on Daydream, which is ready to launch in beta this fall, haven’t but been revealed, however Bornstein mentioned it is going to be a search and discovery platform for style that’s inherently constructed on the capabilities of generative AI, relatively than simply in search of to tack AI options onto the same old e-commerce expertise. It’s going to use developments in AI fields resembling natural-language processing and pc imaginative and prescient to permit buyers to seek for merchandise in numerous methods utilizing textual content and pictures and slim down outcomes by way of dialog with an AI agent, which Bornstein mentioned will likely be greater than the usual AI chatbots that understand context and recommend products from a retailer’s catalogue.

Bornstein’s final e-commerce enterprise was The Sure, an app that used AI to personalise the merchandise customers noticed of their feeds. In 2022, Pinterest acquired the corporate for $87.6 million, and Bornstein joined the social community as its chief buying officer. She moved into an advisory function in January 2023 and left Pinterest in July of that yr, beginning work on Daydream that month.

“We’re taking a giant swing, and we predict that is the fitting time to do it,” she mentioned.

Daydream received’t carry stock however will gather a fee on gross sales, which can nonetheless occur on the websites of its model and retail companions. Almost 2,000 manufacturers spanning rising Gen-Z labels to luxurious are already a part of its catalogue by way of partnerships with retailers and the manufacturers themselves, together with Web-a-Porter, Alo Yoga, Altuzarra, Jimmy Choo and Doen. The goal is to finally have each model and retailer as a companion, in accordance with Bornstein.

Funding has continued pouring into generative-AI initiatives, whilst traders have grown choosier and pulled again general. Within the first quarter of 2024, whole venture-capital funding in generative AI reached $3 billion globally, in accordance with an estimate from EY.

Many start-ups within the area are both constructing foundational AI fashions or business-to-business functions, however Bornstein mentioned they wished to go after one of many first huge consumer-facing performs primarily based on the expertise. Her co-founders within the start-up — Matt Fisher, Dan Cary, Lisa Inexperienced and Richard Kim — have backgrounds spanning expertise and retail, with time spent at corporations together with Microsoft, Amazon, Google and The Sure.

“What’s actually thrilling is when you’ve gotten the mixture of an incredible group with a really related and justified use of AI,” mentioned Danny Rimer, companion at Index Ventures. (Index Ventures is an investor in The Enterprise of Vogue.)

Index Ventures reached out to Bornstein earlier than it knew she was engaged on Daydream, in accordance with Rimer. It had give you a thesis that AI would allow huge developments in e-commerce, which it believed hadn’t essentially modified in 20 years. It contacted Bornstein due to her lengthy expertise in retail and e-commerce, together with government roles at Sew Repair, Sephora, Nordstrom and City Outfitters.

“We have been completely satisfied by Julie and by the Daydream founding group,” he mentioned.