Helping brands including Dior and Burberry manage their metaverse storefront, London’s Emperia raises $10 million

London-based virtual store creator that specifically caters to the fashion and art industries Emperia has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round. The capital is slated to help the fledgling company further develop its SaaS offer whilst simultaneously upping the team headcount.

Emperia’s $10 million Series A round was led by Base10 Partners and saw the participation of Daphni (via its retail fund Dastore), Sony Innovation Fund, Background Capital, Stanford Capital Partners, and Concept Ventures. Amongst the list of angel investors startup studio and early-stage fund Blissgrowth’s Jay Radia.

Sounding remarkably similar to what’s brewing just across the channel at the Digitial Village HQ, Emperia’s technology helps brands develop and drive ‘immersive virtual experiences for brands’ (read: metaverse) ‘across multiple sectors’.

According to Emperia, their offer has helped brands including Dior, Bloomingdale’s, Burberry, Lacoste, Christie’s, Sunglass Hut, Getty Images, and undisclosed ‘others’, drive increased conversion rates by an average of 73 percent (when compared to traditional e-commerce websites) since opening its doors in 2019, resulting in an average ROI of 750 percent.

Emperia CEO and co-founder Olga Dogakina, whose career spans time with brands including Michael Kors, and Coach, elaborates, “We are strong believers in data reliance and as such all our virtual experiences are developed incorporating analytics, which is reflected in layout, design, user experience, and merchandise placement. Crucially, we’re doing this in a way that has a demonstrable impact on sales, traffic, engagement, and brand perception.”

Emperia is the winner of the Plug and Play Brand & Retail Start-up Award and is a British Fashion Council Patron.