With Phia’s AI, the new luxury is knowing what’s worth buying
Updated
January 24, 2026 11:00 AM
Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, founders of Phia. PHOTO: PHIA
AI has transformed how we shop—predicting trends, powering virtual try-ons and streamlining fashion logistics. Yet some of the biggest pain points remain: endless scrolling, too many tabs and never knowing if you’ve overpaid. That’s the gap Phia aims to close.
Co-founded by Phoebe Gates, daughter of Bill Gates, and climate activist Sophia Kianni, Phia was born in a Stanford dorm room and launched in April 2025. The app, available on mobile and as a browser extension, compares prices across over 40,000 retailers and thrift platforms to show what an item really costs. Its hallmark feature, “Should I Buy This?”, instantly flags whether something is overpriced, fair or a genuine deal.
The mission is simple: make shopping smarter, fairer and more sustainable. In just five months, Phia has attracted more than 500,000 users, indexed billions of products and built over 5,000 brand partnerships. It also secured a US$8 million seed round led by Kleiner Perkins, joined by Hailey Bieber, Kris Jenner, Sara Blakely and Sheryl Sandberg—investors who bridge tech, retail and culture. “Phia is redefining how people make purchase decisions,” said Annie Case, partner at Kleiner Perkins.
Phia’s AI engine scans real-time data from more than 250 million products across its network, including Vestiaire Collective, StockX, eBay and Poshmark. Beyond comparing prices, the app helps users discover cheaper or more sustainable options by displaying pre-owned items next to new ones—helping users see the full spectrum of choices before they buy. It also evaluates how different brands perform over time, analysing how well their products hold resale value. This insight helps shoppers judge whether a purchase is likely to last in value or if opting for a second-hand version makes more sense. The result is a platform that naturally encourages circular shopping—keeping items in use longer through resale, repair or recycling—and resonates strongly with Gen Z and millennial values of sustainability and mindful spending.
By encouraging transparency and smarter choices, Phia signals a broader shift in consumer technology: one where AI doesn’t just automate decisions but empowers users to understand them. Instead of merely digitizing the act of shopping, Phia embodies data-driven accountability—using intelligent search to help consumers make informed and ethical choices in markets long clouded by complexity. Retail analysts believe this level of visibility could push brands to maintain accurate and competitive pricing. Skeptics, however, argue that Phia must evolve beyond comparison to create emotional connection and loyalty. Still, one fact stands out: algorithms are no longer just recommending what we buy—they’re rewriting how we decide.
With new funding powering GPU expansion and advanced personalization tools, Phia’s next step is to build a true AI shopping agent—one that helps people buy better, live smarter and rethink what it means to shop with purpose.
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A new bet on early heart failure detection and why women’s health is at the center.
Updated
January 8, 2026 6:28 PM
A doctor holding an artificial heart model. PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK
Heart disease does not always announce itself clearly, especially in women. Many of the symptoms are ordinary, including fatigue, shortness of breath and swelling. These signs are frequently dismissed or explained away. As a result, many women are diagnosed late, when treatment options are narrower and outcomes are worse. That diagnostic gap is the context behind a recent investment involving Ultromics and the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Venture Fund.
Ultromics is a health technology company that uses artificial intelligence to help doctors spot early signs of heart failure from routine heart scans. It has received a strategic investment from the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Venture Fund.
The focus of the investment is a long-standing blind spot in cardiac care. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, or HFpEF, affects millions of people worldwide, with women disproportionately impacted. It is one of the most common forms of heart failure, yet also one of the hardest to diagnose. Studies even show women are twice as likely as men to develop the condition and around 64% of cases go undiagnosed in routine clinical practice.
Ultromics works with a tool most patients already experience during heart care: the echocardiogram. There is no new scan and no added burden for patients. Its software analyzes standard heart ultrasound images and looks for subtle patterns that point to early heart failure. The goal is clarity. Give clinicians better signals earlier, before the disease advances.
“Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is one of the most complex and overlooked diseases in cardiology. For too long, clinicians have been expected to diagnose it using tools that weren't built to detect it and as a result, many patients are identified too late,” said Ross Upton, PhD, CEO and Founder of Ultromics. “By augmenting physicians' decision making with EchoGo, we can help them recognize disease at an earlier stage and treat it more effectively.”
The stakes are high. Research suggests women are twice as likely as men to develop the condition and that a majority of cases are missed in routine clinical practice. That delay matters. New therapies can reduce hospitalizations and improve survival, but only if patients are diagnosed in time.
This is why early detection has become a priority for mission-driven investors. “Closing the diagnostic gap by recognizing disease before irreversible damage occurs is critical to improving health for women—and everyone,” said Tracy Warren, Senior Managing Director, Go Red for Women Venture Fund. “We are gratified to see technologies, such as this one, that are accepted by leading institutions as advances in the field of cardiovascular diagnostics. That's the kind of progress our fund was created to accelerate.”
Ultromics’ platform is already cleared by regulators for clinical use and is being deployed in hospitals across the US and UK. The company says its technology has analyzed hundreds of thousands of heart scans, helping clinicians reach clearer conclusions when traditional methods fall short.
Taken together, the investment reflects a broader shift in healthcare. Attention is shifting earlier—toward detection instead of reaction. Toward tools that fit into existing care rather than complicate it. In this case, the funding is not about introducing something new into the system. It is about seeing what has long been missed—and doing so in time.