Chinese fashion tech firm LincTex Digital raises $100 million
By Casey Hall
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - LincTex Digital, best known for developing its virtual try-on technology for fashion e-commerce, raised $100 million in a fund-raising round led by Hillhouse Capital and CDH Investments, according to the company's official WeChat account.
The money has been earmarked for international expansion and a further shift into the digital fashion realm, it said on Tuesday.
The Hangzhou-based firm is most commonly known as Style3D, a software and hardware developer for the fashion industry and was founded in 2015.
From developing virtual try-on technologies and 3D body scanning in the beginning, Style3D has now broadened its offering to include digital services for fashion designers and manufacturers so they can use big data to design and produce fashion collections.
Most recently, it also pivoted to the metaverse, with digital fashion design and technology products. Its digitally simulated fabric is designed to look and move like clothing in the real world.
More global fashion brands are including digital products as part of their assortments, such as Gucci's $17.99 digital sneakers, which quickly sold out.
Style3D is looking to integrate the design, manufacturing and online sales of physical clothing with the design and production of digital clothing items, founder and chief executive Liu Chen said in the statement.
It has also been expanding worldwide, opening offices in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, New York and Milan over the past year.
(Reporting by Casey Hall; editing by Uttaresh.V)
