Nineteenth Amendment is gaining traction as one of Boston's budding fashion startups. The e-marketplace, which allows experimental shoppers to buy unestablished designers' collections, has made recent headlines when it was selected by New York Fashion Tech Lab as a company to be featured during their first Demo Day, where they showcased their product and demonstrated how they plan to improve the fashion industry.
And Tuesday, Nineteenth Amendment announced they've added a new, local investor with a name many Bostonians might recognize: Blade and Kayak Founder Paul English. The undisclosed investment is a personal one from English and separate from Blade, a company that co-founds and incubates promising startups. English has plenty of entrepreneurial and consumer experience, as well as experience "scaling complex industries," according to the official release. This experience will suit Nineteenth Amendment, as they work to build a system for scalable production management.
In addition to the new investor they've found in English, Nineteenth Amendment has also added a member to its advisory board. Jeff Monahan, co-founder of boutique branding agency Leap, will be involved in developing both public and investor-facing aspects for Nineteenth Amendment going forward. In the past, Monahan has worked with brands like Vera Wang and Godiva.
Of the new investor and advisor, Nineteenth Amendment CEO and Co-Founder Amanda Curtis said in a release:
We are thrilled to include Jeff Monahan and Paul English as two of the best minds Boston has to offer. They bring with them a wealth of experience that will greatly increase the success of Nineteenth Amendment.
Nineteenth Amendment was founded in 2013 by Curtis, a Boston University graduate, and her partner, Gemma Sole, who attended the University of Rochester. Curtis recognized the need in the fashion industry for a marketplace that would foster sales for up-and-coming designers, so she set about creating it herself. Right now, 200 designers from six different continents are set to debut their collections on Nineteenth Amendment's platform, in order to gain feedback from customers before scaling production, and to have previous sales under their belts before going in front of retailers. The company expects to close their seed round of funding this September.
Images via Nineteenth Amendment; TechCrunch
