Rebecca Minkoff launches fashion tech venture capital fund

By

Kate Dingwall

Published
Jan 18, 2017

Rebecca Minkoff has announced a new venture – a fashion tech capital fund. The fund will focus on backing emerging technology innovations in the virtual reality, retail software, and wearables sectors. Minkoff, with her brother and business partner Uri Minkoff, released the news during a panel discussion at the National Retail Federation’s Retail’s Big Show conference in New York City this past weekend.

The collaboration catalyzed after the Minkoff siblings approached Quotidian Ventures a few years back to discuss how the two brands could help emerging tech start-ups.

42 Technologies, an analytics and reporting software that deals specifically with omnichannel retailing in the fashion industry, will be the first brand to be backed by the Minkoffs. The venture capital has not yet declared how much has been invested.

Rebecca Minkoff has been a strong campaigner for female tech innovations, speaking in depth at NRF about her dedication to supporting females in STEM fields.

Rebecca said at the conference, “There are not enough female engineers and coders working in the tech space to bring their user experience to the conversation when it comes to design. As females, we have different user experiences, and so the opportunity to invest in those that have a company that serves women by women, is what excites me the most.”

Minkoff’s eponymous brand has been one of the first luxury brands to really embrace technology in the retail environment. First launched in 2014, Minkoff’s ‘Store of the Future” featured in-store mirror-screens that allowed customers to shop the Minkoff inventory.

This concept combined old-school and new-school retailing – Rebecca Minkoff employees would still be on the floor to assist with any needs, but customers could have the same touch-and-go experience as the e-commerce store offers.