The striking rise of ChatGPT, the chatbot that OpenAI launched in November 2022, along with increased interest in image generators (like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion), music/sound generators, and code generators, artificial intelligence (“AI”) and generative AI, in particular, has taken the tech world by storm. Not limited to having an impact in Silicon Valley, alone, generative AI – which is a type of AI technology that is trained to produce various types of content, including text, imagery, audio, and synthetic data, in response to user prompts – is bringing with it the potential “to change how everything from the written word to art is created,” as Axios put it not too long ago. It is also raising some interesting and nuanced questions in the legal realm, including in terms of authorship/ownership and infringement.
Against this background (and in light of waning interest in/slowing spending for web3 endeavors), a flurry of funding and acquisition activity is coming to the generative AI space. In addition to tech titans – like Microsoft (which invested $10 billion in ChatGPT developer OpenAI in January 2023) and Google (which backed ChatGPT rival Anthropic with a nearly $400 million investment in February 2023) – pouring money into AI, venture firms have increased their investments in generative AI by 425 percent since 2020 to $2.1 billion, according to Pitchbook’s calculations.
In order to get a handle on what generative AI ventures are garnering the most traction – and funding – and to take the temperature of this space more broadly (and what it means for players in the fashion/retail space), we have compiled a (running) tracker of generative AI-specific funding and M&A. Among the firms on our list are those that focus on using generative AI to compile/analyze environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) data for companies, for instance; those that are looking to bring generative AI to the legal sector; and ones that are angling to deploy solutions to fashion/apparel companies’ complex supply chains using AI …
Dec. 4, 2025 – Phia Raises $30M in New Round
Phia, the AI shopping startup co-founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, is raising $30 million in a new round led by Notable Capital, valuing the company at $180 million. The raise follows an $8 million debut round in September and includes backing from Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures, and high-profile angels like Hailey Bieber, Kris Jenner, Sheryl Sandberg, and Sara Blakely.
“Our thesis is simple: online shopping is broken,” the founders pitch. Phia aims to eliminate wasted time and misaligned targeting with an AI agent that connects shoppers to what they actually want.
Dec. 4, 2025 – Searchable Raises $4M in New Round
Searchable, a London-based AI performance marketing platform, has raised $4 million in a round led by Freestyle, valuing the startup at $40 million. The company helps brands track, understand, and optimize how they appear in AI search and recommendations across platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. The funding will support deeper analytics, predictive modeling, and automated content training, with the goal of giving every brand a high-speed, AI-native marketing engine.
“AI is changing marketing faster than Google did,” said founder Chris Donnelly, who previously scaled Lottie and sold Verb for $30M. “We’re now optimizing for the platforms that talk to humans.”
Dec. 2, 2025 – Duvo Raises $15M in Seed Round
Duvo, a Prague- and New York–based startup founded by Rohlik founder Tomas Čupr, has raised $15 million in seed funding led by Index Ventures, with backing from Credo Ventures, Northzone, Puzzle Ventures, and notable angels from Wiz, Stripe, and Zapier. Duvo’s no-code AI platform automates repetitive retail workflows by integrating directly with tools like SAP, email, spreadsheets, and supplier portals—cutting manual work by up to 40%. The funding will accelerate product development and expand Duvo’s reach across global retail and FMCG markets.
“Duvo gives every retail team an AI workforce they can deploy in weeks, not years,” said Čupr, inspired by the inefficiencies he witnessed firsthand at Rohlik.
Nov. 27, 2025 – Ranketta Raises €1M in Pre-Seed
Ranketta, a Czech-based AI visibility platform, has raised €1 million in pre-seed funding to help brands improve their performance in AI-powered search and shopping results. The round was led by Lighthouse Ventures, with participation from Gi21 Capital. The funding will accelerate Ranketta’s expansion into Europe and the U.S., grow its engineering and go-to-market teams, and support deeper integrations with major e-commerce platforms.
“Our mission is to ensure every brand can compete fairly in the AI-driven discovery landscape,” said CEO Vojtěch Oravec, who founded Ranketta after seeing firsthand how invisible most brands are within AI-generated recommendations.
Nov. 20, 2025 – Albatross Raises €10.5M in New Round
Albatross, a Zurich-based AI startup, has raised €10.5 million in a new round led by MMC Ventures, with participation from Redalpine, Daphni, and strategic angels. The funding brings the company’s total raised to €13.5 million and will be used to scale its real-time product and content discovery platform across global marketplaces, retail, and travel platforms.
Founded in 2024 by former Amazon AI leaders Dr. Kevin Kahn and Dr. Matteo Ruffini alongside serial entrepreneur Johan Boissard, Albatross is building infrastructure that adapts in milliseconds to user behavior, without retraining or manual input. Its transformer-based system processes billions of live events monthly and powers tens of millions of predictions, aiming to replace batch-trained recommenders with continuously learning, intent-aware AI.
This is a short excerpt from a data set that is published exclusively for TFL Pro+ subscribers. For access to our up-to-date AI investment and M&A tracker, inquire today about how to sign up for a Professional subscription.
Share
