Phoebe Gates wants to start an AI shopping company, but she won’t include her last name in her pitch materials. The 23-year-old youngest daughter of billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates and philanthropist Melinda French Gates recently raised $35 million for Fear, which is currently valued at about $185 million.
But she is determined that the business, which has “nothing to do with my privilege or my last name,” will be self-sustaining, Phoebe Gates said. Yahoo Finance‘s Unfiltered starting bid amount Podcast of the episode published on Thursday.
“I have a chip on my shoulder,” she said, speaking of her desire to prove that she can beat Silicon Valley private equity based on merit rather than inheritance or legacy.
Phoebe Gates’ comments come amid a re-emergence of her father’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, although Bill Gates’ representatives have repeatedly denied his involvement and related accusations. Phoebe Gates did not comment on the allegations, but French Gates recently said her ex-husband “has to answer” for references to the Epstein files, just weeks after it was revealed that she received $8 billion from the charity Pivotal as part of her divorce settlement.
Phoebe Gates credited her father’s success in business, saying, “I really learned from my father that a team is the core of anything you build. You can’t do anything without a great team.”
How Phoebe Gates is carving her own path
Phoebe Gates co-founded the AI shopping assistant Phia with her Stanford roommate Sophia Chianni. Shopping Assistant connects to browsers like Chrome and Safari to compare prices and view deals from tens of thousands of retail and resale sites in real time. This essentially acts as your own personal trading search. For example, if you’re looking for a $200 dress from Anthropologie, Phia can search and compare prices from second-hand retailers to help customers find a better deal.
“Our target consumer is a busy, working young woman. She shops like a genius, but she doesn’t want to waste her time doing it,” Gates said. luck‘s Most Powerful Women Editor Emma Hinchliffe, April 2025.
The New York-based startup launched its app in 2025 and has grown rapidly, garnering hundreds of thousands of downloads in its first few months as investors flock to its AI “agents” that automate digital tasks. A recent $35 million funding round led by Notable Capital, with participation from firms like Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures, increased Phia’s valuation to approximately $185 million less than a year after its initial $8 million seed round.
Gates and Chianni first brainstormed the startup idea in their dorm room at Stanford University and toured the concept until they landed on a consumer tool that included Gates’ interest in women’s empowerment (likely modeled after her mother) and Chianni’s focus on sustainability.
In line with Gates’ insistence on launching his own venture without the benefit of his last name, the young founder received no funding from his parents for Fear. Instead, she insists on raising money from outside, even though some investors are fixated on her personal life rather than her business.
Gates and Kiani said the topic of future children has come up in meetings before, which was understandably frustrating for the two entrepreneurs. But women’s rights activist French Gates gave Gates some stern advice: “Get up or get off the game.”
“Investors would always ask me, ‘What happens when you two have kids?’ And I remember crying about it once. I called my mom and she said, ‘Wake up or get out of the game, sis.’ I was like, oh my god,” Gates said in an episode of the show. please call her daddy Podcast published in April 2025.
These are now the words Gates says to himself as he navigates meetings with investors, trying to refute Nepo Baby’s accusations. Gates insists this is more than just a legacy project.
“The chip on my shoulder is not only to prove myself, but also to build something novel and unique that consumers actually love,” she said.
