Alice Delahunt believes that the future of fashion is in web3 and created Syky (pronounced “psy-key”) to set the wheels in motion.
She launched the company in November after a marketing career at luxury fashion houses, where she held positions including director of digital and content at Ralph Lauren and director of digital and social marketing at Burberry.
In 2017, Delahunt was at Ralph Lauren and got her first glimpse of blockchain, but it wasn’t until years later, while working to pioneer some digital wardrobe projects with companies, like Snap, Bitmoji, and Roblox, that she had the opportunity to see that web3 was going to be “more than a niche community” for luxury fashion.
Alice Delahunt, founder and CEO of Syky. Image Credits: Dean Isidro
“It seemed like there was potential for virtual fashion and digital fashion to really take off,” he told TechCrunch. “I believe that the luxury fashion houses of tomorrow are being built today.”
That’s when Delahunt left Ralph Lauren and began developing Syky, which she says will serve as an incubator, marketplace, and social community for the next generation of fashion designers and consumers.
As my colleague, Dominic-Madori Davis, recently noted, “if there’s one industry that could use web3, that industry is fashion,” especially when it comes to taking the industry in a new direction or helping it become more sustainable.
This is a big part of Delahunt’s approach. His company name was inspired by the mythological Greek goddess of the soul, Psyche, who she said epitomized “how designers use fashion to express the intangible parts of ourselves and ourselves.”
“Designers inspire us to dream through fashion,” added Delahunt. “And those dreams come from the innermost parts of our psyche, so it was important to me that the name reflect that.”
The company is kicking off the community part of its platform by launching its first NFT, called The Keystone, of which 987 will be available on January 20. Fifty Keystones will be reserved and awarded to aspiring designers, Delahunt said.
The Keystone is a membership pass that provides exclusive access to Syky’s membership space, where they can network and collaborate with other creators and attend online and in-person fashion events. Keystone owners will also be the first to know about designer collection releases, alpha and beta feature releases from the company, and partner projects. In addition, they will receive periodic insights and reports on fashion and technology.
Syky is still in its early stages, but is buoyed by a $9 million Series A investment, led by Seven Seven Six, which also included Brevan Howard Digital, Leadout Capital, First Light Capital Group and Polygon Ventures.
The investment marks Seven Seven Six’s foray into web3 fashion, and Alexis Ohanian told TechCrunch via email that the attraction to Syky stemmed from his obsession with the intersection of technology and culture.
“The creation and growth of Reddit gave me a front row seat to the power of culture creation through technology, even if it’s internet culture, and fashion is one more central element of that.” Ohanian added.
In the meantime, Delahunt intends to deploy the new capital in building the Syky team, incubating designers in the community, and in product and technology development.
She plans for the future market to be a revenue driver for the company. It will be a place for emerging designers and non-established designers to sell and trade their collections with consumers. It will also be a place where designers and consumers can select spaces to showcase their passions for fashion.
Delahunt kept some of the company’s next steps under wraps, including an announcement to designers in February and another part of the platform’s launch in the second quarter of this year.
“We are going to build the luxury space environment in the digital world and then in the physical world,” added Delahunt.
