Artiso, AI platform founded by 3 former Mango executives, raises over 3 million euros in pre-seed round

Madrid – Launched just over one year ago, artificial intelligence (AI) platform Artiso has been operating in stealth mode away from the public eye. Founded by three former Mango executives, the company is now entering a new stage of development after successfully closing a pre-seed funding round of over three million euros (3.34 million dollars). The transaction was backed by investors including Nicolaj Reffstrup, founder and former chief executive officer of Danish fashion brand Ganni.

The start-up was founded by Sarah Iglesias Hiller, formerly of Inditex and Mango; Matthias Brenninkmeijer, with experience at C&A and Mango; and Lucas Pastur Romay, previously at Grifols and Mango. All three worked at the Barcelona-based fashion multinational and were part of the team behind Mango’s first AI-generated campaign. According to Artiso’s management, the start-up has now entered a new growth phase following this pre-seed round of over three million euros. The capital was raised entirely in exchange for equity in a round led by European venture capital fund Criteria Venture Tech, with participation from Spanish venture capital firms Swanlaab Venture Factory and Bynd Venture Capital. Angel investors also joined the round, including Cyberclic co-founder David Tomás and Ganni founder Reffstrup, who invested through his firm Look Up Ventures.

“For years, I led creative teams that had to orchestrate every step of a collection using tools that did not communicate with one another,” says Iglesias Hiller, co-founder and chief executive officer of Artiso. Addressing these operational inefficiencies, she notes that “we built the operating system we always needed: one that understands each brand’s archive, its customers and its taste, and is already operating within fashion companies today.” She adds that “AI is changing how every collection is imagined, produced and presented,” emphasising that “with Artiso, the next era of fashion will be defined by creativity, not complexity.”

“At Criteria Venture Tech, we look for teams with the ambition to build global leaders,” highlights Roma Jelinskaite, managing director of Criteria Venture Tech. Based on this premise, she explains that “Artiso brings together an unusual combination” by featuring “founders who have experienced the problem first-hand, a product that clients already use from end to end and clear demand on both sides of the Atlantic.” Consequently, she adds, “we are proud to lead this round and support them over the long term.”

“Taste is what makes a brand unique,” notes Reffstrup, founder and former chief executive officer of Ganni and now a key investor in Artiso. He points out that “AI cannot replace it, although it can give talented creative teams extraordinary leverage.” Through this AI platform and operating system, the Danish entrepreneur remarks, the company “is building the infrastructure for this, from within the fashion industry.”

New phase of development

Expanding on the context outlined by Iglesias Hiller, Artiso emphasises that the fashion sector is particularly well positioned to capitalise on AI as a value-generating tool due to its high garment volumes and rapid product turnover. The company aims to fully unlock this potential through its AI operating system, which is designed specifically for the fashion industry. The platform promises to redefine and optimise end-to-end workflows for fashion businesses, transforming how they streamline operations through AI tools.

Artiso notes that current workflows across fashion teams rely on a disparate array of tools. These range from product lifecycle management (PLM) software for garment development; design programmes and Excel spreadsheets; shared Drive folders and endless emails; to various standalone AI tools. While useful, these solutions are not integrated, causing fashion brands and their teams to lose a significant amount of information and work each season. Artiso’s AI-native operating system seeks to resolve this inefficiency by storing all data and workflows on a single platform. Furthermore, it leverages agentic AI to capitalise on this information and continuously develop the brand and its collections.

To achieve this goal, the Spanish start-up offers a visual and intuitive platform tailored to the actual workflows of fashion teams. Equipped with agentic AI, the operating system guides professionals across different departments from the initial inspiration and moodboard ideation stage through to design, technical pattern drafting, product development and pre-production. These processes encompass creating garment tech packs; generating virtual models and on-model imagery; producing garment packshots; and developing campaign visuals. Behind the scenes, the operating system simultaneously builds a dedicated memory and brand archive. It then draws on this repository to generate hyper-personalised results aligned with each brand’s DNA and codes, enhancing its uniqueness and “taste”.

Alongside enabling companies to progress from garment ideation to product and campaign imagery without producing a single physical sample, Artiso is now set to accelerate its growth following this pre-seed round of over three million euros. The company notes that this sum is unusually high for a pre-seed round in the fashion tech sector. The funding will accelerate the development of its operating system, support clients in integrating Artiso into their organisational structures and expand the workforce with specialised fashion and technology talent. These new hires will join a team that already includes experts in pattern making; design; art direction; motion graphics; and data science to serve Artiso’s existing client base. The platform already works with medium-sized businesses, major fashion groups and luxury houses across Europe, Asia and North America, with the US serving as a key market.

“The next chapter of fashion starts here,” stresses Iglesias Hiller, describing “a single operating system that connects each brand’s taste and archive with the work of its creative teams, so that every new creation carries all the richness of what came before.” She adds: “In the era of AI, you have to think big and move fast, and with Artiso we want to push the boundaries of what is possible.”

“Fashion imagery is where AI first proved its value, and Artiso goes further,” adds Brenninkmeijer, co-founder and CTO of Artiso. He explains that the company is building an operating system where “every image, every sketch and every tech pack is created with an understanding of the brand behind it.” To this end, he notes that “our agents combine the most advanced generation capabilities with each brand’s proprietary knowledge, while people remain in control of every decision, which turns AI from a tool into a new way of working.”

“We created Artiso with the people who make fashion in mind: creative directors, designers, pattern makers and merchandisers,” concludes Pastur Romay, the third of Artiso’s three co-founders and the company’s CPO. Its operating system “is intuitive, remembers each brand, adapts to how each team works and connects every step,” he emphasises. This enables teams to progress from the “first moodboard to the tech pack and campaign within a single operating system.”