LVMH, L’Oréal invest in social selling platform Replika Software

Dive Brief:

LVMH Luxury Ventures and L'Oréal Bold have invested an undisclosed amount of Series A capital in Replika Software, a social commerce company, according to a Wednesday announcement.
The funding allows Replika to add more brands in various industries to its client lineup, invest in the company's technology, create new features and hire more employees to support its growth, according to the company.
In 2019, LVMH encountered the platform and selected it to be highlighted at the Vivatech Innovation Awards. Afterwards, LVMH invited the startup to participate in its accelerator, "La Maison des Startups" and the companies continued to develop a close relationship, per the press release.

Dive Insight:

Though Replika is currently focused on online sales for fashion and beauty clients, the company seeks to expand into other industries like healthcare, entertainment, travel and electronics in the future, Replika's co-founder Corey Gottlieb said in a statement. Gottlieb noted that LVMH and L'Oréal's investment comes as the startup has quickly increased its clientele across multiple verticals, hired key executive team members, and introduced critical programming and features over the past year.

"When we founded Replika, we envisioned a future where every brand would be able to benefit from the power of social selling," Kareen Mallet, co-founder of Replika Software, said. The funding round will enable the company to pursue its mission of "humanizing online shopping," Mallet said.

Replika's funding round comes as a growing list of companies expand shoppable features on their platforms. Social apps like WhatsApp, Verishop and Pinterest have added in-app e-commerce features to let customers buy items within their platforms. Big brands are also jumping on board the social commerce trend. Sephora began selling more than 80 beauty brands through Instagram Checkout in June.

Meanwhile, other retail and beauty startups have been raising or seeking capital. Beauty tech firm Perfect Corp., which integrated its AR beauty testing tools into Snapchat in December, raised $50 million in Series C funding earlier this month. Poshmark, which also introduced its shoppable Posh Stories feature last April, became a publically traded company this month.