Eleven women-led B2B technology companies will make their collective debut during New York Fashion Week as the 13-year-old nonprofit expands its model and reach.

On September 10, the New York Fashion Tech Lab will bring together 11 women-led B2B technology companies for the debut of The 2026 Collective during New York Fashion Week.

Co-hosted with N4XT Experiences , the live events company behind NYFW Collections, the Experiential Tech Event will take place at The Penthouse at NeueHouse in New York City, in partnership with Convene Hospitality Group and AWS. More than 200 retail executives, investors, Lab alumni, and members of the press are expected to attend. The afternoon before, on September 9, the 11 companies will be spotlighted on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square.

For NYFTLab, the timing and format represent a significant evolution.

Now in its 13th year, the nonprofit is expanding from its traditional single-cohort model to its largest group of participating companies to date. The move also brings the Lab’s annual showcase into one of fashion’s most visible global moments, placing emerging B2B retail technology alongside the broader conversations taking place during New York Fashion Week.

“Our goal with the 2026 Collective is to create more opportunities for dialogue and collaboration between B2B retail tech startups and retail leaders as the industry continues to evolve,” said Jackie Trebilcock, Managing Director of the New York Fashion Tech Lab.

From Cohort To Collective

NYFTLab was co-founded by Springboard Enterprises and key fashion retailers to support women-led companies developing innovations at the intersection of fashion, retail and technology. The Lab operates as a community-driven platform for relationship-building, collaboration, and business development, connecting emerging technology companies with retailers and brands that can help validate and accelerate their technologies.

That model has grown considerably. More than 90 B2B retail technology startups from over 20 countries have participated in the Lab, and alumni companies have collectively raised more than $550 million in capital.

The 2026 Collective represents another step in that evolution.

Rather than selecting one traditional cohort, finalists presented to retail and brand executives during two selection sessions held in April and June at the SAP Experience Center in New York. The 11 selected companies then participated in five weeks of curated programming with NYFTLab and its partners.

This year’s retail and brand partners include AEO Inc., Gap Inc., J.Crew Group, Kohl’s, lululemon, Saks Global, The TJX Companies, VF Corporation and Steve Madden, whose executives participated in the selection and programming of The Collective. Strategic partners include SAP, Manatt and J.P. Morgan.

The 2026 Collective addresses a wide array of issues retailers face today, including data management, profitability, fraud prevention, authentication, quality assurance, product discovery, post-purchase engagement, loyalty programs, inclusivity, visual experiences, and consumer feedback.

Together, the companies offer insight into where retailers seek technology to generate significant business value.

Operational Rigor As Retail Accelerates

Speed is increasingly defining digital retail, but moving faster also introduces new operational risks.

Spur , under CEO Sneha Sivakumar, employs AI browsing agents to automate quality assurance. Sivakumar notes that retailers now oversee multiple storefronts across various brands and regions and implement digital updates more frequently, making traditional manual QA harder to scale effectively.

“The winners will be the ones who adopt AI with actual rigor behind it - clear processes, defined success criteria, internal champions driving adoption, and real measurement against impact and ROI,” Sivakumar said. “The retailers who struggle will be the ones using AI for the sake of using AI, with no way to tell whether it’s working.”

The need for more robust infrastructure extends to upstream processes. Atronous , established by Niru Anisetti and Jayashree Dutta, offers product data management and upstream insights for global commerce, tackling a core challenge as retailers handle more complex product information.

Maeve , established by Phoebe Gormley, addresses a similar challenge from a profitability perspective by using fragmented data to produce actionable insights that help retailers identify and eliminate unprofitable products.

AI Is Creating New Risks Alongside New Opportunities

As retailers implement AI to enhance operations and customer service, they also face new security vulnerabilities.

Wyllo , co-founded by Alex Shamir, specializes in fraud detection and risk scoring for returns, claims, and customer abuse. Shamir highlights a recent challenge: generative AI can now produce convincing images of supposedly damaged goods to back fraudulent refund requests.

Instead of applying the same response to every return, Wyllo analyzes behavioral and identity cues to distinguish suspicious claims from those of trusted customers.

“The retailers who win will be the ones who stop applying one policy to every customer and start treating people dynamically, based on intent,” Shamir said.

The process of authentication is also evolving.

Hawcx , led by CEO and co-founder Riya Shanmugam, is developing passwordless authentication for both human users and emerging AI agents. As AI agents increasingly shop, compare, and potentially transact on consumers’ behalf, Shanmugam argues that retailers will need to rethink how identity and trust are established.

From Static Ecommerce To Adaptive Visual Experiences

One of the most visible transformations may be how consumers experience products online.

AIUTA , under CEO Maísa Benatti, is advancing technology that enables brands to craft more dynamic visual experiences for fashion items. Instead of using a static collection of images, generative technology can showcase garments on various models, in different outfits and settings, and even on individual shoppers.

Benatti describes the broader evolution as a move from static assets toward “Liquid Content.”

“I believe that within five years, showing every shopper the same ecommerce experience will feel as outdated as a website that isn’t mobile-optimized feels today,” Benatti said.

Meanwhile, Veristyle , founded by Ria Chakrabarti, is developing a retail intelligence layer for AI-driven search and discovery, tackling another aspect of the challenge: how consumers locate relevant products as digital discovery evolves.

The Race For Better Customer Signals

Some of the most interesting companies in this year’s Collective are focused not on generating more data, but on capturing information retailers have historically struggled to see.

Rediem , established by Regan Plekenpol and Sarah Ganzenmuller, emphasizes community and loyalty by helping brands build direct relationships with customers that go beyond simple transactions. They facilitate the acquisition of permissioned insights through participation, conversations, feedback, and community experiences. This challenge is especially significant as marketplaces and new AI interfaces increasingly serve as intermediaries between brands and their customers.

Siren , led by CEO Audrey Hansen and COO Olivia Davis, focuses on the post-checkout period. Its platform gathers post-purchase data via customer conversations, filling a key visibility gap between the initial transaction and a customer’s next return, repeat purchase, or overall product experience.

TruRating , established by CEO Georgina Nelson, focuses on customer insights at the moment of purchase by collecting instant feedback and linking it with transaction data. Nelson suggests that future competitive edges won’t solely depend on gathering the most data.

“Retail has spent years chasing more data, but the next five will belong to the ones who go after better quality signals, and trust it enough to act,” she said.

Finding Growth In Customers Retail Has Overlooked

Growth increasingly relies on understanding customers that conventional retail data and marketing methods might overlook.

SeeMe Index , under the leadership of CEO and co-founder Asha Shivaji, measures identity across more than 700 dimensions, including skin tone, hair type, ethnicity, ability, and body size. This helps brands evaluate how well their content, products, and purpose connect with diverse communities.

“The winners will be the brands that build with their consumers, not just for them,” Shivaji said. “Reaching these consumer groups won’t be a campaign or a moment—it’ll be embedded in how they operate.”

That perspective reflects a broader theme running through the 2026 Collective: technology is increasingly being applied not simply to automate existing retail processes, but to reveal information retailers previously couldn’t see and enable decisions they previously couldn’t make.

Bringing Retail Technology To Fashion Week

NYFTLab’s decision to include The Collective in New York Fashion Week highlights a significant shift. Fashion Week traditionally focuses on designers and creativity, but increasingly, technology behind the scenes is reshaping the industry. By positioning these companies at NYFW, it links creative expression to operational infrastructure, highlighting how technology could integrate into fashion design, production, marketing, merchandising, and the entire ecosystem. For the 11 founders, this visibility extends beyond startups to retailers, brands, investors, and industry leaders during a major fashion event. This move reflects a broader industry shift: technology now integrates with creativity, influencing how collections are planned, products are discovered, and business decisions are made. The 2026 Collective emphasizes this evolution, in which effective tech solutions address key industry challenges, such as margin protection, product decisions, supply chain strength, and smarter customer relationships. By integrating The Collective into NYFW, NYFTLab not only spotlights innovation but also redefines its role within fashion’s value chain and its visibility.

Disclosure: The author is a member of the New York Fashion Tech Lab Expert Network, a group of industry experts and investors who serve as informal advisors to companies participating in the program.