By
Emma Childs,
a fashion news writer at The Cut who covers style and pop culture.
Previously, she was the fashion features editor at Marie Claire and a fashion writer at The Zoe Report.
Phia co-founders Phoebe Gates (yes, as in the daughter of Microsoft’s Bill) and Sophia Kianni are in hot water. According to a new report from Bloomberg, the entrepreneurs knowingly pushed for features in their AI shopping platform’s software that took credit for — and earned profits on — sales Phia didn’t actually drive. Internal Slack channels shared with the outlet revealed Gates and Kianni had been aware of the practice since at least December 2025. This contradicts Phia’s previous statement, which claimed the issue was due to a software bug its team discovered when Bloomberg initially reached out for comment in July. Mess!
