Daydream Secures $50 Million In Seed Funding to Launch AI-Powered Shopping Platform

Last week, e-commerce and retail veteran Julie Bornstein along with co-founders Matt Fisher, Dan Cary, Lisa Green and Richard Kim announced that they have raised a $50M seed round co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Index Ventures with participation from Google Ventures and True Ventures to launch Daydream: an AI-powered e-commerce platform that will transform the way people shop online. Aiming for a Beta launch in the U.S. this Fall, Daydream will provide shoppers with personalized results using generative AI, machine learning and computer vision.

Daydream essentially lets shoppers search for products using the natural language search capabilities of generative AI and image recognition. For example, the pre-launch website shows examples of queries like, “I need a dress for a summer wedding in Costa Rica” and subsequently the platform will show products suited for that occasion and climate. Or perhaps, “Bright coloured sneakers that feel old school.” Positioned as ‘a new era of shopping,’ Daydream already has close to 2,000 brands in its catalog through partnerships with both multi-brand and mono-brand retailers, including Topman, Saint Laurent, AllSaints, Puma, Adidas, Nike and Demellier.

AI-powered shopping is not a new phenomenon and Bornstein is familiar with it. Before launching Daydream, Bornstein held leadership roles at many companies including Stitch Fix, where she served as Chief Operating Officer and Board Member. She led e-commerce at retailers including Sephora, Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters. Most recently, she was the co-founder and CEO of The Yes, an AI-powered e-commerce platform that was acquired by Pinterest in 2022. Today, as the co-founder and CEO of Daydream, Bornstein has recruited a powerhouse team comprising former executives from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Nordstrom and Farfetch, who have decades of experience in AI, e commerce or technology. The unified goal is to build Dream as an intelligent online e-commerce platform that will make it an enjoyable and simple experience to search for products among a quality selection of brands and retailers in the fashion space.

“When we built The Yes, the tools available were much less advanced. When ChatGPT launched, my brain exploded with all the possibilities of what we could do with search and fashion and natural languages and images.” Bornstein told Inc. “I started with the investors that had invested in my prior company, and they were interested. Then, I had gotten to know the Google Ventures team, and we were really interested in having a tech investor. Index kind of found us. That’s how the round came together. It’s the benefit of being a second-time founder…”

Per PR Newswire: ‘”For decades, search has been the prevailing entry point to the internet, but it’s increasingly fraught and ineffective when people are looking for personalized, specific answers that meet their unique needs. With AI, we believe we can do so much better than the chaotic, cluttered experience that search has become,” Kirsten Green, Founder and Managing Partner at Forerunner. “We believe that search will transition to service, with the search giants dominating the space losing market share to new entrants providing personalized, AI-driven services that work in collaboration with consumers to meet their end goals and delight with a fundamentally new level of value…”‘

‘”Eighty-eight percent of shoppers are more likely to visit sites that personalize their experience. Daydream takes a new AI-driven approach to create a better shopping experience online with highly-curated product recommendations,” said Frédérique Dame, General Partner at GV. “We believe the winners in this new technology chapter will be those who deeply understand consumer AI and search trends, and the Daydream team has unparalleled domain expertise in this area. We’re thrilled to partner with Julie Bornstein and the team as they build a category-defining AI platform that changes how people shop online.”‘ Per PR Newswire.