Kidswear subscription service Dopple raises $9.8 million in funding

By

Robin Driver

Published
Apr 7, 2021

Dopple, a New York-based e-commerce platform specialized in selling kids’ fashion subscriptions to millennial parents, has closed a seed funding round led by Bullpen Capital and Precursor Ventures, successfully raising $9.8 million.

 
The company intends to use the funds to expand its commerce-as-a-service platform, which will allow its brand partners to more easily scale their businesses. In addition, it is planning to develop its offering for consumer shoppers, by evolving both its subscription service and its one-off purchasing options.
 
Along with Bullpen and Precursor, a number of other angel investors participated in the funding round, including WorldQuant Ventures, Pierre Lamond, Lior Susan, David and Kelsey Lamond, and Chad and Kristine Boeding.

Founded in 2017, Dopple delivers a quarterly “Dopple Drop” of custom-curated children’s outfits to subscribers. The company uses a machine learning styling algorithm to achieve some of the industry’s highest keep rates for try-on-at-home models.
 
The platform, which offers end-to-end logistics and marketing support to its portfolio of more than 200 brand partners, including Bonpoint, Stella McCartney Kids, Petit Bateau, and Janie and Jack, has made rapid progress over the last two years, boasting 5x year-over-year growth.
 
“Over the past decade, millennials have transformed the apparel industry, decimating the traditional department store retailers, even before the pandemic,” explained Dopple co-founder Janel Molton Hertz in a release. “Today’s savvy parents are turning away from traditional children’s retailers, demanding a better, more personalized experience than the vertically integrated players that once dominated the market.”
 
With this strategic focus, Dopple seeks to tap into the rising popularity of online fashion subscription services, such as Fabletics and Stitch Fix, while also grabbing a slice of the U.S.’s $40 billion children’s apparel market, which according to the company, is growing faster than both women’s and menswear.
 
“I immediately knew I wanted us to invest in Dopple. They have three key markers of success in retail, even at this early stage: high customer retention rates, deep brand equity, and a proprietary styling algorithm that works. Add in sophisticated fulfillment logistics, and they are able to match and deliver to customers the right products at the right time,” commented Bullpen general partner Ann Lai.
 
“As a result, Dopple offers value to brand partners who can remain confident that their products will uncompromisingly find the right customer base. The future of retail will be found in this type of operational excellence,” concluded Lai.