Startups keep launching in FashTech, and SFFT loves it. Even if we are biased. Last week Chicisimo.com had their official launch; in parallel they announced $800,000 in funding from VitaminK a Madrid based investment firm, with an awkward name for a VC firm (I joke). FashTech is a global movement, and SFFT loves Spain, so color us excited.
Originally launched in San Francisco, Chicisimo has rebuilt, relaunched, and relocated…to Valencia we think. Viva la Espana! Seriously. Don’t we all love Spain? So what is a Chicisimo? It means “super chic.” But if you want more, here’s the company’s about:
Chicisimo (“super chic”) is the social website and worldwide community where fashionistas and fashion brands come together to share their personal style, inspire one another, and discover new styles, brands, and products. Chicisimo fashionistas upload photos of their favorite outfits, provide and receive positive feedback from the community, and earn virtual “flower” awards, while interacting with their favorite fashion brands.
The focus of Chicisimo is unabashedly on fashionistas. “Chicisimo attracts fashionistas around the world who are eager to share their personal style while collecting new fashion inspirations.” said Gabriel Aldamiz-echevarría, co-founder of Chicisimo.
Building on the company fashionista focus, consumer driven trending is key to both Chicismo’s features and user experience. For instance, the company is hyping two key features: (1) “individual “Looks” into a “Set” (e.g., color blocking or neon accessories)” and (2) a New Idea to Wear, Each Day concept, that allows users to identify new trends, well daily.
With $800k behind them and a website that seems to have pretty good activity, Chicisimo has some staying power. But perhaps most interesting is the gamification features they’ve added –and lets be honest, you have to gamify these days. They have a whole “Flower” point system that users acquire based on their activity. Some Flowers take into account nationality. So far though, there are no actual rewards yet for acquiring a lot of Flower Power. Although the faqs hint that the company is trying to work with brand partners to create more incentives.
Chicismo is in a fairly competitive space. So it’s too soon to say if their model will work. It will be interesting to see if they can maintain the community activity and actually provide real awards via the Flower Power to incentivize users. But we love Spain and the dynamic global market of fashtech.
