Imanee raises seed funding to bring fashion from the TV screen to your closet

Fukuoka-based television shopping startup Imanee earlier this week revealed that it has received JPY 10 million (US$83,400) in seed funding from CyberAgent Ventures. The investment was made late last month but wasn’t made public until Monday. It will be used for product testing, additional hiring, and user acquisition.

Imanee allows women to purchase fashion items worn by celebrities who appear on their favorite TV programs. Shohei Kaneko, Imanee’s business development manager, tells Tech in Asia that “celebrities, in this case, can mean movie stars, comedians, athletes, artists, and other entertainers.” The site has a ranking system for the most popular shows, talent, and user-curated columns. Clicking a popular drama series, for example, reveals the most popular clothes worn by its featured actresses, sorted by brand.

The Japanese text under each item is the name of the celeb who wore it.

At present, the service only offers women’s clothing, accessories, and home furnishings. Kaneko says that, in the future, the service will offer men’s items. The site attracts 400,000 monthly page views and 40,000 unique monthly users.

Imanee’s revenue model is based on advertisements from affiliates, but Kaneko adds that the startup is preparing additional monetization streams through cooperation with more than 30 Japanese apparel makers. Imanee also tied up with a fashion show series called Fukuoka Asia Collection last month.

New York City-based Pradux, which raised US$600,000 last year, offers a similar “as seen on TV” model, but Imanee doesn’t appear to have any direct competitors in Japan or elsewhere in Asia.