All-in-one online shopping app Sortd takes home $1.26 million in pre-Seed cash

Women-led ecommerce app Sortd has raised $1.26 million in pre-seed funding to help shoppers keep track of their wish lists.

Sydney founders Jodine Wolman, 27 and Alexis Aaron, 26 have emerged from the Antler Australia accelerator program with backing from the VC firm and several private investors, including ELMO Software’s chief commercial officer Darryl Garber.

The Sortd app launched recently to simplify online shopping for users, who can compare options, share, collaborate and check out on the platform, as well as consolidating ‘wish lists’ from all the e-commerce sites they use.

The duo began working on the idea two years ago, rebranding from Walah to Sortd three months ago.

Aaron, a commercial lawyer experienced in retail and logistics, said deciding what to buy when online shopping can be extremely tedious, and usually involving multiple wish lists, screenshots, folders or opening numerous browser tabs. 

“Our intention is not to change user behaviour, but to improve it. We want our users to shop from the stores they already know and love, and assist them in making the most informed and efficient purchase,” she said. 

Sortd is affiliated with leading retailers including The Iconic, Farfetch, Shopbop, Princess Polly, Cotton:On, Matches, earning a commission on purchases.

Aaron said that Sortd is a lead generation and advertising tool for retailers and re-engages  shoppers with products they might have lost track amid an overwhelming range of options.

“Over the next few months, we are focusing on building features that incentivise people to share their lists with friends,” Aaron said.

“Our target market shop together in real life, often relying on their best friends to help them decide what to buy. With Sortd, they can now do this digitally by sharing lists and asking their friends to vote on items they like. Here we can focus on delivering on our mission of more informed decisions, while growing organically and keeping the cost of acquisition down.”

Antler Australia partner Cath Rogers said they were pleased to back another another team of female founders.

“Alexis and Jodine have a clear vision to transform the way we shop online, removing the friction of transacting with multiple online retailers and improving customer experience. Like many Antler founders, the team strongly identified with and lived the user experience which is evident in Sortd’s customer-focused solution,” she said.

“The team has moved quickly post Antler funding to build the product and has defied current market conditions to secure over $1 million dollars in additional funding, prior to an official product launch and pre-revenue.”

The Sortd app went live in the Apple app store last week.