The New York Fashion Tech Lab (NYFTL) has launched "The Collective," a revised format featuring 11 female-led tech startups — its largest group of female-founded companies since the program began more than a decade ago.

The debut comes against a stark funding backdrop. Startups with solely female founders captured just 0.8 percent of U.S. venture capital as of 2026, down from 1.8 percent in 2008, according to PitchBook data. That figure climbs above 50 percent this year when male founders sit on the same team.

The cohort showcased business-to-business retail technology, applying AI across use cases from fraud detection in product returns to automated quality-control agents.

What changed in this year's format?

NYFTL scrapped its traditional single-cohort model for "The Collective." The lab also shifted timing: instead of hosting the program in June, it staged the launch during New York Fashion Week.

"I think it's a great turnout," Jackie Trebilcock, managing director at NYFTL, told Sourcing Journal during the event. "We're doing this for the first time during New York Fashion Week."

"We invited retailers, investors, and press to come and see what they do as a platform for exposure," she added. "They're all solving different sort of problems for the industry."

The 11 startups include:

• Maeve AI — a co-pilot that turns disconnected data into actionable insights
• TruRating — consumer intelligence captured at the moment of purchase
• SeeMe Index — an identity measurement platform
• Wyllo — a risk-scoring platform for returns
• Veristyle — a retail intelligence layer for AI-native search and discovery
• Aiuta — visual content creation for brands and shoppers
• Spur — AI browsing agents that automate quality control of brands' online content
• Hawcx — passwordless authentication for humans and agents
• Siren — post-purchase data capture to close retailers' visibility gap
• Atronous — product data management and upstream intelligence for global commerce
• Rediem — a community and loyalty platform making its entry into fashion

What does the loyalty play deliver in numbers?

Rediem, new to fashion, adds an interactive layer to a brand's online presence, letting brands issue "challenges" — for example, a sportswear brand inviting users to post workout videos shared with its community — in exchange for loyalty points.

The startup increases customer lifetime value (LTV) by an average of 75 percent, according to co-founder and CEO Sarah Ganzenmuller.

"The brands that are coming to us are kind of recognizing how important brand and community has become, especially with how shopping has shifted in the last five years," she told Sourcing Journal at the event.

"People are buying through marketplaces like Amazon or TikTok Shop. In the future, they can be buying through AI agents. So as brands become further and further away from the end customer, we help them have an own channel that they can communicate their values continuously, engage, and create that emotional connection that we ultimately know drives LTV," she said.

Why it matters for brands and vendors

For sourcing and retail-technology teams, the cohort signals where B2B vendor investment is concentrating: returns risk, content quality control, post-purchase data and authentication — functions brands increasingly automate as AI reshapes both the buy side and the sell side of commerce.

The lab itself frames the event as deal flow: exposure to retailers and investors that can convert pilot discussions into partnerships. Which of the 11 convert exposure into signed contracts will be the metric to watch as NYFTL's "Collective" model heads into its next cycle.