Stylect

Stylect was a London-based fashion technology company founded in October 2013 by Giacomo Summa, Darius Jankauskas, and Hadi Laasi. The firm operated as an online aggregation platform and mobile application focused on women's fashion, initially gaining recognition with a concept often described as "Tinder for shoes". The platform was designed to help women discover shoes by swiping through thousands of options; a swipe right indicated a 'like', and a swipe left a 'dislike'. This interaction model allowed the application's algorithm to learn user preferences and provide increasingly tailored recommendations.

The company was the brainchild of CEO Giacomo Summa, an MIT Sloan and HEC Paris graduate with a diverse background that included roles at Google, Credit Suisse, the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, and Rocket Internet. His experience at Dafiti, a major Latin American fashion e-commerce site, provided him with deep insights into online retail and the affiliate sales model. This background, combined with inspiration from the popular dating app Tinder, led to the creation of Stylect. Summa was joined by co-founders Hadi Laasi, who became Head of Product after meeting Summa at the Techstars accelerator in London, and Darius Jankauskas, who took on the role of CTO.

Stylect's business model was centered on affiliate sales, earning a commission of around 10% on each purchase made through the app. The application aggregated product listings from numerous retailers and brands, allowing users to discover, save, and purchase items. Key features included notifications for price drops on liked items and a geolocation function that alerted users when a desired pair of shoes was available in a nearby physical store. While initially focused on footwear, the platform later expanded its catalog to include other fashion categories like apparel and eyewear. The company raised a total of $548,000 over three funding rounds from investors including 500 Global, Forward Partners, and Start-Up Chile. Despite initial traction, including being featured by Apple as a best new app in several countries and amassing nearly one million downloads, Stylect eventually ceased operations, with records indicating it was out of business by October 2019.

Keywords: fashion discovery, shoe shopping app, e-commerce platform, affiliate marketing, mobile commerce, personalized recommendations, fashion tech, style aggregator, Giacomo Summa, London startup, Tinder for shoes, online retail, startup accelerator, price alerts, geolocation shopping, fashion discovery engine, women's footwear, mobile shopping, venture capital, out of business