Bill Gates’ youngest daughter Phoebe Gates has pulled in a massive $35.5 million for her artificial intelligence shopping startup Phia, and she’s got a long list of famous faces backing her. The 23-year-old founder and her business partner Sophia Kianni announced the new funding on May 29, revealing dozens of A-list celebrity investors who have joined the company’s Series A round. The fresh cash brings Phia’s total funding to $43.5 million, with the company now valued at $185.5 million.
The AI-powered shopping app, which launched in April 2025, helps users find the best prices across thousands of online stores. Phia now works with over 9,600 retail brand partners and has attracted more than 1.5 million users since its debut. The app was also named one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2025.
Khloé Kardashian Joins Mom Kris Jenner As Phia Investor
Khloé Kardashian is one of the biggest names to jump on board this round. The reality TV star told PEOPLE that her mother Kris Jenner, who invested in Phia’s earlier $8 million seed round, convinced her to get involved.
“My mom has always been the one with the futuristic mindset, so when Kris Jenner gets involved in a business, I am all ears,” Kardashian said. “Joining her as a co-investor is such an incredible journey for me, and I can’t wait.”
Kardashian also shared why the app caught her attention as a shopper. “What I love about this app is that it takes the guesswork out of shopping — it gives you real transparency around value so you can feel confident in your decisions instead of wondering if you made the right call afterward,” she explained.
Full List Of Celebrities Who Invested In Phoebe Gates’ Phia
The investor lineup reads like a red carpet guest list. Paris Hilton, Sydney Sweeney, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Jessica Alba, Alix Earle, and Mindy Kaling have all put money into the company.
Other famous backers include Ice Spice, Gunna, Shaboozey, Halsey, Lori Harvey, Ashley Graham, Karlie Kloss, Olivia Culpo, Winnie Harlow, Rachel Zoe, Bobbi Brown, Sophia Amoruso, Lilly Singh, Cait Bailey, Amy Griffin, Leila Hormozi, Codie Sanchez, Chriselle Lim, Zack Bia, Eileen Gu, and Jay Shetty.
Music duo The Chainsmokers (Alex Pall and Drew Taggart) also invested. The Nader Sisters (Brooks Nader and her siblings Mary Holland, Grace Ann, and Sarah Jane) joined as well.
Jessica Alba explained why she decided to back Phia, pointing to the app’s focus on honesty. “The Phia platform’s transparency has become the major factor for me in investing in the company,” Alba said. “What makes this application so special for me is that it eliminates the uncertainty from shopping.”
Alix Earle, the popular social media influencer, said she invested because she wants to support women who start their own businesses. “Woman’s business support is, in my opinion, one of the biggest levers a woman can have,” Earle remarked. “So it’s very natural for me to go beyond with female founders who are not only building great companies but also ones that are the very face of tomorrow.”
Tech Heavyweights And Business Leaders Also Back The Startup
The funding round isn’t just about Hollywood names. Alexandre Arnault, son of LVMH billionaire Bernard Arnault and executive at the luxury goods giant, also invested.
Major tech figures joined too, including Charles Porch of OpenAI, Vladimir Tenev from Robinhood, and Iqram Magdon-Ismail who co-founded Venmo. Other tech and business investors include Mellody Hobson (co-CEO of Ariel Investments), Naomi Gleit (head of product at Meta), Kevin Hartz (Xoom co-founder), Ankur Jain (BILT), Alex Zaccaria (Linktree), and Mati Staniszewski (ElevenLabs).
The Series A round was led by venture capital firms Notable Capital, Khosla Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins — the same firm that backed Amazon and Google in their early days.
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Gates Built App Without Parents’ Money
Phoebe Gates has made it clear she’s not using her family’s fortune to fund this business. She has not taken any money from her father Bill Gates or her mother Melinda French Gates for Phia. The startup’s first investment came from a university professor, followed by the Soma Fellowship program.
Melinda French Gates previously told The New York Post that she chose not to invest in her daughter’s company because she wanted Phoebe to learn how to raise money on her own.
Gates herself has spoken about wanting to build something separate from her famous last name. “I have a chip on my shoulder,” she told Yahoo Finance. She wants to create something with “no ties to my privilege or my last name.”
The Phia app is currently available for free on iOS and as a Chrome desktop extension at phia.com.
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