The Phia team is currently confined to their homes—quite literally. While intensely focused on developing their AI shopping assistant, founders Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni found themselves stranded in their separate New York City apartments after a major snowstorm. It’s unusual for the former Stanford roommates and close friends to be apart or away from their office during our conversation. “We told everyone, ‘It’s fine, stay home.’ It isn’t safe,” they explained. Even as Gates and Kianni worked remotely, several employees still ventured into the office. “Our team is sharing photos on Slack right now… the whole porch is covered in snow.”

This is everyday life at a rapidly scaling startup. Only ten months old, Phia has just secured a $35 million funding round. The raise was led by Notable Capital, with involvement from Khosla Ventures and returning investor Kleiner Perkins—a remarkably fast progression. (For clarity, Phoebe Gates is the daughter of Bill and Melinda Gates; her parents are not financially backing her company.)

“We are in a uniquely opportune moment,” Gates remarked regarding the new capital. “Consumer commerce hasn’t meaningfully evolved in three decades, and now is the time to create a fully personalized, end-to-end shopping experience.”

Already, Phia serves hundreds of thousands of monthly active users, has multiplied its revenue by eleven times since launching, and has partnered with 6,200 retailers. Currently offered as a mobile app and browser extension, Phia helps shoppers find savings by displaying resale or second-hand alternatives to products they’re viewing. For instance, if someone is ready to purchase a $200 dress from Anthropologie, Phia might show the same item available on Poshmark for $80. While promoting second-hand shopping aligns with sustainability—Kianni is a climate activist and former United Nations advisor—the founders recognize that building a user base starts with helping people spend less. Beyond resale, Phia can also suggest similar items from more affordable brands, leveraging its retail partnerships. “Many of our brand partners took a chance on us early, joining when we had fewer proven results,” Kianni noted. Phia earns a commission on sales generated through its platform, similar to an affiliate model. “Now, with our newer offerings, we have data demonstrating benefits like a 15% increase in average order value, 30% higher new customer acquisition, or 50% lower return rates.”

A significant driver of Phia’s growth is its founder-led marketing strategy. As Gen Z digital natives, Gates and Kianni have built a combined social media following exceeding 2 million. This includes their podcast, “The Burnouts,” where they discuss entrepreneurship and interview notable personalities from business and entertainment, such as Bryan Johnson and Paris Hilton. The founders envision Phia evolving into what Gates describes as a “holistic shopping agent.” To support this vision, the company will use its recent funding to hire leading machine learning engineers. “Our top priority has always been attracting premier engineering talent, and having this capital helps us bring in the very best,” Kianni stated.

Phia’s current team, all based in New York—weather permitting—numbers around twenty. That’s a compact group for a company with expansive ambitions to reshape commerce, but as Kianni emphasizes, “It’s not about team size anymore. It’s about the quality of talent you bring onboard.”

Achieving their goals will require that high-caliber team. “The era of static, impersonal web pages is over,” Gates said. As Phia expands, she wants users to “begin their shopping journey with Phia first, through a personalized feed and outfit recommendations tailored to their existing wardrobe, or even suggestions on what to donate or sell.”

Creating such customized experiences, however, depends on gathering user data—a delicate process that demands transparency and security. The company previously addressed a concern about data collection, stating that an extension feature logged webpage content only to identify shopping sites and that Phia has “never stored this data.” The feature was promptly disabled once flagged.

“We maintain complete transparency with users about why we request certain permissions, and everything is clearly communicated upfront,” Kianni assured. “Technically, we ensure all data is aggregated, anonymized, and used solely to help users find the best products as efficiently as possible.”

Ideally, that episode will be seen as a minor growing pain rather than a sign of future issues—because Phia is correct that online shopping is ripe for renewal. “This is where AI agents become essential,” Kianni observed. “They can eliminate tedious manual steps and create the shortest path to the perfect item.”

“We’re on the brink of a totally new way to shop,” Gates added. “We want to make the entire ecosystem more efficient and bring back the joy of shopping.”