Pinterest is acquiring The Yes, the AI-powered personalized shopping platform with a site and app, co-founded by e-commerce veteran and former Stitch Fix COO Julie Bornstein and technical co-founder, Amit Aggarwal. Deal terms were not disclosed, but the acquisition will help to establish a new strategic organization within Pinterest to help drive the company’s shopping efforts, including the development of features for both shoppers and retailers, the company says.
According to Tech Crunch, The Yes officially launched as an app in May 2020 with Bornstein (who worked at Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters and Sephora before joining Stitch Fix as Chief Operating Officer) as CEO and fashion industry veteran Taylor Tomasi Hill as creative and fashion director, following 18 months of development and having raised $30 million in funding from a group of investors that included Forerunner Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and True Ventures. (In a January 2022 interview with Glossy‘s Jill Manoff, Bornstein said the company had raised $40 million in total.) Its big draw was the curated shopping experience tailored to each customer’s style and brand preferences by its algorithm.
“Ultimately what we’ve built is sort of a next-generation shopping platform where we have a very large brand assortment,” Borstein told Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jill Avery in a recent episode of the Cold Call podcast. “Our goal is to have the largest of branded fashion… and for the consumer to be able to come in and answer some quick and fairly straightforward but high-signal questions that help us understand her. The entire platform and shopping experience adapts to each user, so every customer is shopping a store built around them.”
Since its debut, The Yes has grown its roster of designers to cover everything from luxury to mass market, from Prada and Bottega Veneta to Khaite and Altuzarra to Madewell and Staud. It introduced a website in July 2021. And earlier this year, it started a loyalty program.
The terms of the deal — which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022 — weren’t disclosed. Once its done, Borstein will report to Ben Silbermann, the co-founder and CEO of Pinterest, and “lead shopping vision and strategy across Pinterest, creating a new and strategic organization dedicated to Pinterest’s taste-driven shopping efforts that will help steer the evolution of features for Pinners and merchants on Pinterest,” according to a press release. The rest of The Yes’ team will join Pinterest, too, and that the company will shut down the app.
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