Ruti Raises $6M in Series A Funding

Ruti, the tech-savvy fashion brand with a highly personalized in-store experience, announced today that it has raised $6M in a Series A funding round led by Viola Ventures. The investment will be used to expand development of its proprietary technology in boutiques, scale online, and open new retail locations.

Ruti has built a following for its clothing designed specifically for women over 35 years old. "Each design carefully optimizes a sophisticated formula based on a dozen parameters so that each item is flattering, comfortable, ethical, practical and fashionable," said CEO Ruti Zisser, CEO and Co-Founder. "Our technical designs are coded and carefully executed by the best manufacturing procedures one can find."

The company developed a proprietary AI platform that leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI), a CRM internally built from the ground-up for a retail environment, and opt-in only facial recognition to develop personalized recommendations based on each shopper's fashion preferences, likes and dislikes and an understanding of what designs will be most flattering. The system continuously builds customers' profiles, including past purchases, items they've tried on, and other attributes. In addition, customer feedback gathered on the database influences design process for upcoming collections.

"The thing that keeps tens of thousands of enthusiastic customers coming back to Ruti is their personal relationship with our brand. They appreciate that we are able to provide them with products catered to their style and the use of technology vastly enhances our ability to do just that," said CTO, Sharon Segev. "This funding will be used to bring the high-touch experience of our in-store experience to our online store. The traditional e-commerce approach might work for high frequency, low-cost items, but when it comes to unique products and truly personal customer relationships, we knew we had to develop a better approach."

"Ruti's mindset aligns with our vision to support innovators who are solving consumers' problems by utilizing cutting edge technologies in new ways — something they've already been very successful at doing, as a profitable company with repeat customers accounting for 75 percent of sales," said Daniel Cohen, General Partner at Viola Ventures. "We're excited to help this like-minded brand to not only expand their team, but also to enhance their online presence and grow geographically to meet the demand from women across the globe."

"Three years ago I had a dream that I will have 'magical' glasses that, once a customer enters my store, will tell me who she is, what she loves, and how can I be helpful to her and enable me to give her what she really wants and needs," said Zisser. "But my story with Ruti started earlier, when I reached my mid-thirties. I couldn't believe that the fashion industry doesn't treat appropriately women my age and older, expecting us to dress and act according to our age versus our style and personality. In order to dress cool and fashionably, we need to either shop at stores geared at twenty-somethings or to dig in a huge pile of offerings in huge department stores or stores with traditional style. That day I decided to create a cool brand, that takes into account our changing body's needs, but doesn't compromise on a fashionable result."

About Ruti
Ruti is a tech-savvy fashion brand designed to provide the 35+ woman, who is looking for fashion that is cool, practical and flattering, with a highly personalized shopping experience. Ruti is headquartered in Belmont, CA, and currently has ten stores across the United States. The luxury brand was founded by Israeli-born designer Ruti Zisser. After years as a tech executive, Ruti took a leap of faith and struck out on her own, devoting herself to creating the clothes she's been searching for all along, but was never able to find.

About Viola Ventures
Viola Ventures is part of Viola, Israel's leading tech-focused investment group with over $3B AUM. Founded in 2000, Viola Ventures empowers early stage start-ups to become global leaders. The fund manages over $1B and has backed some of Israel's unicorns such as Payoneer, Lightricks, Outbrain and ironSource. Check out Viola at www.viola.vc.