Obsess, a leading experiential e-commerce platform that enables brands to create interactive, shoppable online virtual stores and showrooms, closed a $10 million Series A funding round.
WHO: Obsess uses virtual and augmented-reality technologies to create memorable, immersive digital flagship and pop-up store experiences for consumers and to digitize brands' showrooms for wholesale buyers. These photorealistic online stores drive discovery, engagement, click-through, session duration, average order value, and conversion for leading retailers and brands. The platform enables brands to engage new customer audiences across the globe without needing to establish a brick-and-mortar presence in international markets, and roughly three-quarters of Obsess's client partners are using the company's technology to expand their global operations.
WHY: Obsess will use the new investment to accelerate its global expansion and product development efforts and to continue expanding beyond fashion and beauty into additional retail verticals such as home, entertainment, and consumer packaged goods.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: "Immersive shopping experiences are becoming a standard part of e-commerce, and forward-thinking brands are using our technology platform to provide shoppers with a rich, interactive way to shop for their products," said Neha Singh, founder and CEO of Obsess. "Younger shoppers who have grown up interacting with videogames and watching esports expect to be able to interact with brands in real time as they shop online and 3D virtual shopping experiences will soon be table stakes for brands in every retail category."
Dermalogica has recently partnered with Obsess to create a fully shoppable virtual store experience that gives customers an engaging way to learn about and shop for the brand's assortment of professional-grade skincare products. "Educating consumers is one of our core priorities as a brand and we're thrilled to partner with Obsess to make the experience of interacting with our brand and discovering, learning about and shopping for our skin care products and services even more engaging," said Kenna Wynne-Jones, Associate Director of Brand Marketing at Dermalogica. "We are committed to meeting our customers' unique skin care needs however and whenever they prefer to shop, and many of them prefer to shop from home. The Obsess platform provides an immersive virtual experience that's unmatched and gives us an entirely new way to tell our brand story."
COVID-19 has compelled brands to prioritize e-commerce, but many are beginning to understand that their online experiences are primarily filtered JPG images, which are hardly engaging or effective for discovery," said Yelena Shkolnik, Partner, Jump Capital. "Obsess's immersive platform powers an exciting vision for the future of digital shopping and the technology is as relevant for omnichannel brands as it is for DTC labels. We are thrilled to back Neha and her team as they scale this amazing consumer experience across brands and product categories.
Obsess and its vision are essential to our investment thesis for building the foundations of the metaverse—where people have a digital presence to interact, play, work and do commerce," said Marco DeMiroz, co-founder and General Partner, The Venture Reality Fund. "The company's significance to digital lifestyle is the reason we made not only a follow-on investment, but also the very first investment from our new fund to join this round.
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