London-based Emperia gets £10m to boost metaverse e-tail

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Jan 30, 2023

London-based software start-up Emporia has raised over £10 million of expansion funding “to reimagine the e-commerce space”. It’s aiming to bring retail into the metaverse by giving merchants the tech to build virtual stores.

Its London and New York teams have so far partnered with Bloomingdales, Dior, Sunglass Hut and Lacoste. 

Launched by fashion and retail expert Olga Dogadkina and VR innovation specialist Simonas Holcmann in 2019, they developed a platform that powers the creation of immersive virtual experiences for brands across multiple retail sectors.

Their aim is to harness the accessibility of e-commerce with the impact of in-person retail by giving merchants the tech and visual infrastructure they need to build and manage powerful virtual stores. 

CEO Dogadkina told EU-Startups: “While working in fashion, it became clear to me that e-commerce was the future, but 2D websites were merely a tool that enabled an online purchase, but were lacking the customer journey and story-telling that brands are after. The solution was to bridge that gap, with the aim of making virtual experiences into the future of brands’ long-term e-commerce strategy.

“The power of the metaverse is attracting customers of all sizes and markets, and Emperia wants to bring that to retail, transforming the future of shopping for the digital-native generation.”

The new money will be used to grow the team, develop its virtual store SaaS platform and deepen the capabilities of the data suite that powers it. 

The investment round included Base10 Partners, Daphni, Sony Innovation Fund, Background Capital, Stanford Capital Partners, Concept Ventures, and business angel Jay Radia.