Fashion tech startup The Drop lands £500,000

London-based fashion tech startup The Drop has raised £500,000 in Seed funding.

The round was led by Sir John Hegarty’s The Garage Soho. Co-investors included business Angel Paddy Byng (former SVP of marketing at Ralph Lauren and former CEO of Smythson and Linley).

Set up in 2016, The Drop was co-founded by Jonathan Kruger, a former clothing industry executive who oversaw Chinese production for some of the world’s biggest retailers; and Stephen Stroud, a senior software developer with a background in disruptive VC backed startups.

Kruger and Stroud set out to tackle the fact that traditional retail models focus on producing large volumes of garments in standardised and ill-fitting sizes, meaning customers are left having to “make do” with whatever they can find off-the-rack.

The Drop’s proprietary technology allows customers to get bespoke items.

Kruger said: “This latest investment marks the next step in our journey to make custom-made menswear available to all at an affordable price – we want to offer a better product, in a better fit than they could access on the UK high street.”

Stroud added: “We want to give our customers access to perfectly fitting clothing and do so in a way which is sustainably achieved through the use of technology. For us it’s totally unacceptable that clothing is the world’s second largest industrial polluter and we want to change that.”

Sir John Hegarty explained why he backed the startup.

“The Garage team are excited to back Jonathan and Stephen and their talented team in building the future of menswear. This fundraise underlines the huge future growth potential of The Drop and the opportunity it represents to make better fitting clothing, more sustainably.”