WHY WE INVESTED: TRUETOFORM
- Simmone Seymour
- 14 hours ago
- 5 min read
We are excited to welcome TruetoForm to the Capitalize VC portfolio! Led by Janice Tam and Margaret Peterson, TrueToForm uses proprietary technology to more accurately determine fit from just a phone's camera, reducing returns and driving reduced costs to brands and retailers, while preserving the shopper experience.
The High Cost of Returns
Every year, billions of dollars in merchandise gets returned. Managing returns cost retailers $849.9B globally in 2025 (NRF). The cost burden of returns on retailers and brands alike is increasing due to rising operational costs and increasing instances of returns fraud and abuse - including 'bracketing' (buying several sizes with the intent to return the non-fitting items). The top driver of returns today? Fit.
Today, 'fit' and sizing are broken by design. The current solution — generic size charts and flat measurement tables with inconsistent sizing across brands — was designed for a world without the internet, and e-commerce. Online apparel shopping forces customers to make a sizing decision without trying the item on, with inconsistent sizing guides across brands, categories, and even products within the same brand. The issue is reflected in the data: online retail sales are projected to have a return rate of 24.5% this year, while purchases from brick-and-mortar locations are projected to have a 8.72% return rate (Capital One Shopping). Current sizing practices taken by retailers and brands are not providing consumers with the resources to accurately assess fit. According to Baymard, 83% of desktop apparel sites and 87% of mobile apparel sites fail to provide sufficient sizing information, while 90% of apparel sites neglect at least one key element users need to assess appearance, size, or fit.
The issue becomes more difficult to resolve, as the returns experience is a critical component of the shoppers' perception of a brand, and as such is meaningfully impactful to customer loyalty, conversion, and repeat purchase rate. Consumers have high expectations, and mostly want returns to be free, fast, and frictionless. According to Narvar, 76% of shoppers surveyed stated that a negative returns experience would make them less likely to purchase from a retailer/brand in future (up from 71% in 2025 and 67% in 2024). Of those surveyed free returns was reported as the #1 reason for joining a brand or retailers' loyalty program. Additionally, returns play a critical role in converting first-time buyers, with 90% of surveyed shoppers stating that they review the returns policy before making a purchase, and almost half (48%) noted they read the policies "thoroughly". Retailers are testing strategies from charging for returns, to penalizing frequent returners - but they struggle to balance driving negative consumer brand sentiment, with maintaining their own profitability.
The retail industry needs a solution to reduce return costs while maintaining a great shopper experience. Enter: TrueToForm.
True-to-Form: Fixing the 'Fit Problem' for a Digital Age
TrueToForm has built what the industry needs now: an AI-powered 3D body scanning platform that gives shoppers and brands a shared, accurate language around fit. Using just a smartphone, customers can generate a precise digital avatar in minutes — no hardware, no tape measure, no in-person fitting required. The platform delivers 97%+ measurement accuracy across 60+ body data points, validated in an IRB-approved study with 300+ participants using hardware scanners as the source of truth.
The platform serves two distinct markets with purpose-built products:
For Made-to-Measure businesses — custom tailors, bridal designers, bespoke brands — TrueToForm replaces the manual tape measure entirely. Designers can collect accurate client measurements remotely, expand their geographic reach, and cut down on costly fitting revisions. Customers like Kalypso Couture Bespoke Tailored Suits and Marigold are already seeing flawless first-fit results with clients they've never met in person.
For Ready-to-Wear e-commerce brands — TrueToForm's fit prediction widget embeds directly into product pages, visually showing shoppers how each size will fit their specific body, at every key landmark. The results speak for themselves: Jordan Craig saw a 4.2x lift in order conversion among widget users. Dessy Group delivered a 183% lift in conversion — and a dramatic reduction in fit-related returns. 77% of shoppers prefer TrueToForm's approach over single "best size" recommendation tools.
Brands like Rainbow Shops are already live on the platform. The product is working — at scale and across categories, driving real value for the platform's customers.
Why We Invested: True to Form
We are very excited to welcome TrueToForm to the Capitalize VC family! We invested because the problem is costly, the timing is right, the product is meaningfully differentiated with opportunity to create a defensible moat, and last (but certainly not least) the team - led by Janice Tam and Margaret Peterson - is stand out.
The problem is costly and real: In 2025, 15.8% of items purchased were returned, costing retailers a whopping $849.9B.
The timing is right: key structural changes in how we shop has increased the cost and frequency of returns and the issue is only expected to get larger as digitally-native generations come of age. Consumers, now smarter about online purchases and returns, are increasingly trying to game the system and intentionally purchasing items they plan to return. At the same time, younger digitally-native generations are making more returns than the generations that came before them. Gen Z, for instance on average makes 7.7 returns annually, with older generations making significantly fewer returns such as the Baby Boomers who make 4.8 returns on average annually (NRF and Happy Returns).
The product is meaningfully differentiated: Janice and Margaret have spent years building a complex technical infrastructure that enables a not-so-complicated, easy-to-use system for fit. Margaret, as CTO, developed the proprietary 3D human reconstruction pipeline utilizing deep neural networks and synthetic data, achieving 97% accuracy in body shape capture. She holds four granted U.S. patents for methods and systems related to motion tracking and user representation, including the a patent filed for TrueToForm's body scanning technology. In short, this technology is not easy to copy.
They are building a defensible moat: the opportunity for TrueToForm to build a defensible moat is real. The more customers scan, the more body data TrueToForm accumulates. The more body data they have, the sharper their fit predictions become. That's a proprietary data flywheel that compounds with every single scan — and it's not something a competitor can replicate overnight.
The founding team is stand out: led by co-Founders Janice Tam (CEO) and Margaret Peterson (CTO), the team exemplifies the core characteristics we seek in founders. Our relationship with Janice and Margaret began several years ago. Over the course of a few years, both have demonstrated their complete conviction in solving the 'fit' problem, their ability to receive feedback and implement it, and flexibility in being able to quickly pivot when something was not working. Their unwavering commitment to developing the advanced technology needed to support an easy-to-use sizing solution is what converted us into believers. We believe their demonstrated ability to execute and proclivity towards 'getting things done' will continue to drive their success.
Building a more equitable ecosystem: we are excited to back two female founders located outside of the NYC and SF hubs (let's go Minnesota!). Additionally, the TrueToForm solution in reducing returns creates a more sustainable supply chain.
The Future of 'Fit' and the Post-Purchase Shopper Experience
We predict that the post-purchase experience will increase in importance as a component of the path-to-purchase and the returns experience is a critical part of this. Consumers spend 10x more time with a brand post-purchase than pre-purchase and the post-purchase experience is in many ways the last frontier to retain and re-engage shoppers and convert them into loyal fans.
TrueToForm is an updated solution purpose-built for the modern shopper journey. The team has built the infrastructure layer for fit — a platform that works for bespoke tailors and global e-commerce brands alike, powered by a data flywheel that gets smarter with every scan. The early metrics are exceptional. The market is enormous. We're proud to back Janice, Margaret, and the entire True-to-Form team as they build the future of fit. We see big things in their future!