We are thrilled to announce Plug and Play’s investment in Showroom alongside SeventySix Capital. Following a few conversations with the co-founder and CEO, Sam Rattner, it became evident that this is the visionary leader and business venture we are eager to get behind.

Our discussions flowed seamlessly as we shared a deep understanding of the challenges consumers face in navigating increasingly fragmented shopping platforms and grappling with subpar search experiences. Moreover, we resonated with the headaches brands endure due to excess inventory and the complexities of customer acquisition.

Showroom is reimagining the product search experience from the ground up with its GPT-powered shopping platform, enabling consumers to effortlessly find exactly what they want in seconds by using their own natural language. Traditional search engines like Google, with their paid keyword monetization model, have often left consumers frustrated with subpar product search results. In response, Showroom emerges as a solution, offering a GPT-powered platform that allows users to engage in natural language conversations and quickly pinpoint the most relevant products.

Want to look for black denim jackets with gold buttons for under $225, delivered in 2 days? Talk to Showroom.

Fighting the customer acquisition and sustainability battle for brands

The e-commerce industry is experiencing rapid growth, and with this growth comes heightened competition. Brands are facing significant challenges in efficiently reaching consumers, driven by factors such as eliminating third-party cookies and escalating advertising costs. These macroeconomic conditions have led 30% of major advertisers to reduce their spending on paid advertising while seeking more sustainable avenues for growth. Additionally, the persistent struggle of long-tail product discovery poses a considerable challenge. Brands find themselves grappling with issues related to excess inventory and sustainability, resulting in losses exceeding $163bn — equivalent to the combined GDP of Croatia, Costa Rica, and Iceland.

Showroom is the new frontier for brands to enhance their customer acquisition strategies, increase visibility, and boost transactions for those elusive and lesser-known SKUs. As a vertical search platform tailored to the fashion industry, Showroom can be likened to what Zillow is for housing, or OpenTable is for restaurant reservations. While billion-dollar platforms exist in major verticals such as Travel, Hospitality, Housing, Stocks, and Jobs, the fashion industry still needs a comparable solution due to its complex and extensive product landscape. Nevertheless, with the advancements in machine learning and the implementation of k-nearest neighbor (kNN) search — a technique designed to identify the nearest data points to a given query point within a high-dimensional vector space — Showroom has unlocked the potential for highly accurate vertical fashion search.

Meet the team behind Showroom

The company is in capable hands with its experienced second-time founding team. Sam Rattner’s previous venture, Vigtory, an interactive gaming platform for sports betting and iGaming, was successfully acquired by FuboTV for $40m. Sam served as COO of Fubo Gaming for a year before embarking on the journey to establish Showroom. His unwavering vision and dedication to Showroom and his co-founders' commitment, who also hailed from Vigtory, inspire our confidence that the team will lead Showroom to become the trusted search-based shopping destination for millions of consumers and brands worldwide.

Why we're excited to invest

We firmly believe in Sam Rattner's prowess as a serial entrepreneur who has previously built and successfully exited consumer technology companies. With his leadership, we are confident that Showroom will evolve into the ultimate shopping destination for fashion enthusiasts, addressing these critical pain points in the industry.

Investing in Showroom and its exceptional founding team is exciting for us. As investors, we are genuinely excited about the significant value we can bring by leveraging Plug and Play's extensive network of renowned brands and retailers.