Drobe

What Drobe does

DROBE is a Tokyo-based fashion technology company founded in April 2019 that operates two integrated business lines. The first is a direct-to-consumer personal styling subscription service for Japanese women, in which members complete a ~70-question style profile and then receive curated fashion selections assembled jointly by professional stylists and DROBE's proprietary Styling AI recommendation engine. Customers try items at home with free returns, paying a 2,900 JPY styling fee per delivery (waived on the first delivery) plus the price of items kept. Distribution runs primarily through the LINE smartphone app, with nationwide Japan coverage. The service has accumulated 200,000+ registered members and 100+ stylists as of late 2023.

The second business line is a B2B Fashion AI/DX services arm that sells DX strategy, proprietary AI agent development, EC site construction, digital marketing support, and inventory optimization systems to Japanese apparel brands and retailers, leveraging the operational learnings and technology stack built for the consumer service. DROBE has also launched &DROBE, a live-stream commerce EC site, and a Brand Influencer BOX module enabling brand staff to deliver styling proposals online. The proprietary AI stack includes a recommendation engine trained on 50,000+ past styling decisions, a fine-tuned fashion-domain LLM, computer vision segmentation models, and a GPT-3.5-turbo-powered AI Stylist conversational search.

Name

Drobe

Legal name

株式会社DROBE

Website

https://drobe.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Drobe (株式会社DROBE) is a Tokyo-based fashion technology company founded in 2019 that operates a women-focused personal styling subscription service combining professional stylists with proprietary AI, and a B2B Fashion AI/DX consulting arm serving Japanese apparel brands and retailers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Personal Styling Services

SIC

Retail-Women's Clothing Stores (5621)

akta.pro primary industry

Personal Color Analysis & Style Consulting (HSACAJAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Virtual Styling & Outfit Planning (HSACAJAF)

Keywords

• Personal styling services
• Fashion AI platform
• AI product recommendations
• Fashion ecommerce
• Digital transformation consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Sarugaku

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Personal Styling Service (DROBE本体): Customers receive curated fashion boxes; pay styling fee per delivery plus purchase price for kept items only. Initial delivery is product cost only; subsequent deliveries include 2,900 JPY styling fee per session. Frequency options: 1, 2, or 3 months. Shipping and returns are free. This is the primary revenue driver.
2. &DROBE E-commerce: Curated EC site selling selected fashion items directly to consumers. Revenue from direct product sales with optional live-stream commerce format.
3. Fashion AI/DX B2B Services: Consulting and solution development for fashion industry brands and retailers. Includes DX strategy, AI agent development, EC site construction, digital marketing, and inventory optimization systems. Revenue from project-based and retainer engagements.
4. AI-Developed Collaborative Products: Original fashion products (shoes, knitwear) co-developed with brands using DROBE's proprietary AI, sold through DROBE and partner channels.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Drobe operates the DROBE personal styling service for women, which combines professional human stylists with a proprietary "Styling AI" recommendation engine to curate clothing and accessory boxes delivered to customers' homes for try-on. The company also runs the &DROBE curated e-commerce site with live-stream commerce, and offers B2B fashion AI/DX consulting services to apparel brands and retailers covering DX strategy, AI agent development, EC site construction, digital marketing, and inventory optimization.

Product overview

DROBE operates two main service lines: (1) B2C personal styling, centered on the DROBE personal styling subscription service combining human stylists with a proprietary 'Styling AI' recommendation engine, supplemented by the &DROBE live-stream EC site; and (2) B2B Fashion AI/DX services offering consulting, proprietary AI agents, data analytics, EC site development, digital marketing, and inventory optimization systems to fashion industry clients, supported by whitepapers on return marketing and VOC. DROBE's AI technology stack encompasses a fine-tuned fashion-domain LLM, a computer vision segmentation model, an NLP-powered conversational search tool ('AI Stylist'), and AI-co-developed fashion products sold through brand collaborations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• AI Stylist (AIスタイリスさん): An AI-powered natural language search service for fashion items and coordinates, launched March 2023 using OpenAI's GPT technology.
• ファッション業界向けAI・DX事業
• ブランドインフルエンサーBOX

Products and services

• DROBE Personal Styling Service Women-focused personal styling subscription service combining professional human stylists with proprietary AI. Users complete a profile survey, submit photos, and receive curated clothing and accessory boxes for home try-on; they purchase only what they keep. Covers all of Japan via LINE app.
• &DROBE E-commerce Direct-to-consumer curated e-commerce site where anyone can purchase fashion items selected by Drobe, featuring live-stream presentations and influencer-led product showcases for adult women shoppers.
• Fashion AI/DX Consulting Services B2B consulting and solution development for fashion industry brands and retailers. Includes DX strategy planning and execution, proprietary AI agent development, data aggregation and analytics, EC site build and operations support, digital marketing, and inventory optimization systems.
• AI Stylist (AIスタイリストさん) Industry-first conversational natural language search service for fashion items and coordinates, powered by OpenAI's GPT-3.5-turbo, allowing users to discover fashion items via conversational queries.
• AI-Co-Developed Fashion Products Original fashion products co-developed with partner brands using Drobe's proprietary AI, sold through partner brand channels and Drobe's platform. Includes collaborations with any SiS, DANNON, INÉD CLARO, and others.

Quantifiable outcome

• Styling workflow time reduced by 30%+ through Styling AI assistance
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability8 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered general, core and minor.

• CodatumgeneralTechnology or Integration · 24 June 2026DROBE implemented Codatum's next-generation BI tool to replace Redash for internal data analytics. Codatum offers easier data structure understanding, AI-generated SQL, and notebook-style collaborative workflows. DROBE plans to explore secure dashboard offerings with signed embedding for corporate clients.
• steppi (オンワード樫山)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 July 2025DROBE designed and now operates the official brand website for steppi's knit-shoe products. The site enables virtual try-on experiences. Announced July 2, 2025.
• ECOMMITminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 December 2023DROBE partnered with ECOMMIT, a circular economy business operator, to trial a home-collection service for unused items as a limited campaign (December 2023).
• 日本郵便 / 楽天ロジスティクス (Japan Post / Rakuten Logistics)generalOthers · 21 November 2023DROBE relocated its warehouse and logistics base to Rakuten Logistics 'RFC市川2' facility in November 2023, citing business expansion needs.
• any SiS (オンワード樫山)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 August 2023First AI-powered product co-development collaboration with any SiS (working women's fashion brand under Onward樫山) launched August 2023. Subsequent collaborations followed in October 2023 and February 2024.
• 三越伊勢丹 (Mitsukoshi Isetan)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 29 July 2022DROBE began a new service collaboration with Mitsukoshi Isetan, announced July 29, 2022. The partnership aimed to deliver personal styling experiences through Isetan's retail channels.
• ユナイテッドアローズ (United Arrows)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 April 2021United Arrows participated in DROBE as a partner, announced April 28, 2021. The nature of the participation appears to be strategic/investment-related as part of DROBE's growth phase.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Heuritech: Fashion AI company using computer vision and trend forecasting for brands — comparable AI-styling and trend-prediction capabilities to DROBE's image segmentation and AI-co-developed fashion products.
• Vue.ai: AI platform for fashion retail covering personalization, visual search and styling recommendations — overlaps with DROBE's Styling AI, image segmentation and AI Stylist NLP capabilities sold into fashion brands.
• Lily AI: AI platform focused on fashion attributes and product tagging used by apparel retailers for search and recommendations — comparable technology layer to DROBE's fashion-domain LLM and recommendation engine.
• Style Arcade: B2B assortment planning and inventory optimization SaaS for fashion brands — comparable to DROBE's B2B 'inventory optimization system' service line.

Direct peers

• Subscribe Fashion: UK-based womenswear personal-styling subscription service using AI-assisted curation and home try-on — closely parallels DROBE's curated-box model in a developed-market context.
• Stitch Fix: US-listed personal-styling subscription service that pairs human stylists with a recommendation algorithm to ship curated apparel to consumers — the closest global analog to DROBE's hybrid AI + stylist model.
• Le Tote (Lord & Taylor): Subscription womenswear rental/styling service inside Lord & Taylor — structurally similar apparel-curation subscription to DROBE's box-of-clothes offering.

Broad incumbents

• Trunk Club (Nordstrom): Nordstrom-owned personal styling service shipping curated apparel to customers — direct competitor to DROBE's subscription styling box, though run by a large incumbent rather than a focused startup.
• Edited: Established retail data and AI analytics platform serving fashion brands and retailers — comparable to DROBE's B2B Fashion AI/DX arm which sells AI-driven merchandising, inventory and assortment insight to apparel companies.

Regional players

• FINDER (Japan fashion-tech): Japan-focused men's AI personal styling service offering AI-curated fashion boxes to consumers in the same domestic market as DROBE — closest domestic regional peer, comparable in-store-virtual-hybrid shopping.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/DROBE_official
• Instagraminstagram.com/drobe_official
• TikToktiktok.com/@drobe.official

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Drobe