- SafeSize, the Greek retail tech company that helps people find the perfect fitting shoes in physical and online stores, raises a €14 million Series B round from Phaistos Investment Fund and existing investors Convent Capital and 3TS Capital Partners.
- The investment will be used for expansion into international markets including the US, and to establish a stronger presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
- The company also plans to invest in product innovation and develop its product offering leveraging 5G connectivity.
“The new funding round enables us to accelerate our journey towards our mission to transform the way shoes are produced, sold, and discarded around the world. The investment comes only 4 years after the previous investment and we are excited to continue to invest in tech innovation and deliver superior experiences to footwear customers around the world,” Angelos Stavrakis, Founder and CEO of SafeSize, comments.
Founded in 2013 and headquartered in the Netherlands, SafeSize is one of the pioneers in the footwear virtual sizing market. Through the power of AI, the company matches consumers’ 3D foot data and personal preferences with the world’s largest shoe database to provide highly accurate and personalized shoe recommendations. In other words, SafeSize offers an integrated suite of 3D foot scanning and shoe recommendation solutions for in-store and online retailers.
Global traction and ambitions
SafeSize already operates nine scanning facilities across the globe. The company analyzes over 1.5 million shoes every year, creating the world’s largest database of shoe inner dimensions, sizes, and other key characteristics. SafeSize has developed a strong presence in the Netherlands, Slovenia, Greece, China, Australia, and New Zealand. To date, it has helped over 20 million consumers across 50 countries find perfect-fitting shoes.
By partnering with SafeSize, retailers such as INTERSPORT, Decathlon, Sports Direct, HOKA, New Balance, Skechers, Super Sports Xebio, CCC, and Marks & Spencer have been able to optimize their sales and customer satisfaction.
“In 2021, we opened the doors to our Innovation & Development Centre in Athens, Greece. Our product design, technology, customer experience, and marketing teams are based in the Athens office – a multidisciplinary and highly dynamic team, 50% of which are female,” Angelos Stavrakis shares for The Recursive.
The future of virtual footwear sizing
Angelos Stavrakis explains that their product roadmap is focused on 3 key pillars: consumers, footwear retailers, and footwear brands.
“SafeSize will focus on the design of customer-centric products that solve real-life consumer problems such as ‘what is the right shoe size and fit’. We are planning on further enhancing our AI-powered omnichannel virtual fitting solution which consists of our in-store 3D Foot Scanner and an online suite of sizing and fitting tools such as a mobile foot scanning app. Through these innovative solutions, our goal is to provide customers with a data-driven, highly personalized, and memorable customer experience,” Angelos says.
When it comes to footwear retailers, the company aims to develop retail tech solutions that help them drive sales, reduce product returns, and boost customer satisfaction.
“Our goal is to develop and launch new retail tech solutions that bridge the gap between physical and online retail. In addition, we are planning on leveraging the rich consumer/foot/shoe data generated by SafeSize AI-powered solution to help retailers better manage their inventory and create more targeted/personalized communication, boosting customer loyalty and satisfaction,” SafeSize’s founder comments.
Lastly, the company will focus on providing data and insights to footwear brands to transform the way they design and produce shoes.
“We are planning on utilizing the millions of consumer 3D foot data as well as 3D shoe data to help international footwear brands design shoes based on actual consumer needs/preferences and better manage the manufacturing processes reducing excessive shoe production and unnecessary waste which is discarded in landfills and takes ups to 30-40 years to decompose. The footwear industry accounts for 1.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions driven by dated supply chains – using consumer data, footwear supply chains can be optimized lowering the environmental impact,” Angelos Stavrakis concludes.
