The New York Fashion Tech Lab is celebrating its tenth year supporting women-led startups through its premiere program devoted to creating innovative advances in the fashion and retail-tech space through its community-driven, relationship-building, business development platform. And this week, the non-profit announced the next set of leaders participating in the 2023 cohort class.
NYFTLab selected six companies to participate in the coveted 12-week program, including Altr, Hue, Sociate, Sparkbox, PSYKHE AI and Try Your Best. These companies provide inventive solutions in user-generated content, digital fashion, price optimization, AI-driven chat capabilities, personalization and more.
Each company will collaborate with NYFTLab’s retail and brand partners to enhance business development. The goal for the collaborations is to connect tech with fashion, beauty and retail to find new ideas and unique solutions to bring to the space. The selected companies will engage in curated workshops, weekly sessions, and have meetings with investors and senior executives from the Lab’s network of experts.
This year, new brand partners include Saks, Selfridges, TJX, and Wolverine World Wide, Inc. They will join returning partners Burberry, Macy’s Inc, Levi Strauss & Co, LVMH, Richemont and Vera Bradley Inc. Accenture and Fenwick & West LLP are also supporters of NYFTLab.
“We founded the NYFTLab with the goal of identifying some of the most innovative fashion technology entrepreneurs and connecting them directly to industry leaders to advance the retail landscape,” Kay Koplovitz, co-founder and chairman of the board for the NYFTLab and Springboard Enterprises, said in a statement. “Ten cohorts later, we’re so proud of our alumnae and how far they’ve come. This year’s cohort will undoubtedly add to the ongoing success of the initiative.”
The experience will culminate with the annual Tech Runway Demo Day, where the founders will present their technology to retailers, brands, investors and the press.
Meet the 2023 Lab Companies:
Altr
Founded by Jessie Fu in 2022, Altr is a digital fashion platform, dedicated to unlocking the value of archival and vintage fashion.
Hue
Hue was founded in 2021 by a trio of women, Janvi Shah, Sylvan Guo and Nicole Clay in Boston. The company enables brands and retailers to embed short-form shoppable user-generated video reviews on their websites.
Sociate
Co-founder and CEO Yasmin Topia created Sociate in 2020 — an AI personal stylist that can see and speak to help customers quickly find what they love, making shopping a more curated and effortless experience.
Sparkbox
Sparkbox, a platform for data-driven pricing and inventory planning, was co-founded by Lindsay Fisher in 2018 to improve profits and reduce waste.
PSYKHE AI
Founder and CEO Anabel Maldonado created the AI and psychology-powered merchandising and personalization platform PSYKHE AI in 2019 to enable retailers to hyper-personalize the customer experience.
Try Your Best
Co-founder and CEO Ty Haney and COO Breana Teubner are steering the ship at Try Your Best — a end-to-end community engagement platform allowing brands to directly connect, engage and reward fans.
