Luxury fashion meets blockchain at Syky, the Seven Seven Six-backed web3 platform • TechCrunch

Alice Delahunt believes 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 career in marketing at luxury fashion houses, serving in roles including digital and content manager at Ralph Lauren and digital and social marketing director at Burberry.

In 2017, Delahunt was at Ralph Lauren and had her first look at blockchain, but it wasn’t until years later while working to pioneer some digital wardrobe projects with companies, such as Snap, Bitmoji and Roblox, that she got 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 credit: Dean Isidro

“It felt like there was potential for virtual fashion and digital fashion to really take off,” she 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 said 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 an industry that can 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 much of Delahunt’s focus. The company’s name was inspired by the mythological Greek goddess of the soul, Psyche, who she said personified “how designers use fashion to express the intangible parts of ourselves and themselves.”

“Designers inspire us to dream through fashion,” Delahunt added. “And these dreams come from the innermost parts of our psyche, so it was important to me that the name reflected that.”

The company is kicking off the community portion of its platform by releasing its first NFT, called The Keystone, of which 987 will be available on January 20. Fifty Keystones will be reserved for and given to aspiring designers, Delahunt said.

Keystone is a membership card that gives exclusive access to Syky’s members’ area, where they can network and collaborate with other creators and be able to attend digital and in-person fashion events. Keystone holders will also be the first to hear about designer collection drops, company alpha and beta feature releases, and partner projects. In addition, they will receive periodic insights and reports on fashion and technology.

Syky is still very much in the early stages, but is backed 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 his attraction to Syky came from his obsession with the intersection of technology and culture.

“Creating and growing Reddit gave me a front-row seat to the power of culture creation through technology, even though it’s internet culture, and fashion is another core element of that,” Ohanian added.

In the meantime, Delahunt intends to use the new capital to build the Syky team, incubate the designers in the community and on product and technology development.

She plans for the future marketplace to be a revenue driver for the company. It will be a place for new and established designers to sell and exchange their collections with consumers. It will also be a place where designers and consumers can curate spaces to showcase their fashion passions.

Delahunt was tight-lipped about some of the company’s next steps, which include an announcement for designers in February, and another part of the platform launching in the second quarter of this year.

“We’re going to build the luxury space environment in the digital world and then in the physical world,” Delahunt added.