Luxury fashion game DREST has secured £15 million in fresh funding.
The latest version of the platform will offer players the chance to exhibit and improve their styling talent using the latest luxury fashion and beauty collections to style hyper-realistic avatars in the metaverse.
Through its in-game challenges, DREST showcases user-generated content, with the digital fashion assortment provided by FARFETCH as well as brands directly, allowing players to easily discover, style and shop the latest collections.
DREST combines gamification with brand marketing and partnership opportunities, enabling its stakeholders to access and interact with new and highly-engaged audiences.
Since its launch in 2019, the mobile gaming company has recorded 250% year-on-year user growth, raised £30m and works directly with over 260 brands including Breitling, Cartier, Christian Louboutin, Fendi, Gucci, Prada and Valentino.
The investment round was agreed with the family office of DREST co-founder and co-chair Graham Edwards.
He set up the firm with co-chair Lucy Yeomans, previously global content director for NET-A-PORTER and editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar UK for 12 years.
“We’re delighted to be able to support Lucy in her quest to bring the merged worlds of gaming and fashion to an excitingly large global audience,” said Edwards.
Lisa Bridgett, CEO at DREST, said: “We are thrilled to have secured investment to help us scale DREST, especially in such a tough market.
“This is testament to the strength of our product delivery and pipeline of ideas. We are now ready to take the business to the next level, and offer a new one-of-a-kind experience to our users while maintaining the core elements of the game.
“There is an undeniable interest in gaming from the luxury fashion and lifestyle industries and we are very well positioned to cater to this increasing demand. We very much look forward to the next chapter.”
Further plans include scaling DREST through the developer ecosystem, marketing channels and strategic revenue streams as well as building on the user base growth experienced by the platform.