Pinterest acquires AI-powered shopping startup The Yes, co-founded by former Stitch Fix exec

The Yes, founded by e-commerce veteran and former Stitch Fix COO Julie Bornstein and technical co-founder, Amit, was acquired by the company today. The acquisition will help to establish a new organization within the company to help drive the company's shopping efforts, including the development of features for both shoppers and retailers.

At a time when people are shopping online, the Yes arrives. Today, users are more interested in creator content, video and highly personalized feeds than they were in the past. It may be possible for the Yes to help with the latter.

The Yes built a daily shopping feed that learns a user's style from hundreds of fashion merchants. It was different from Bornstein's earlier efforts at Stitch Fix, which had included human stylists picking out items to send to more passive shoppers who wanted to be surprised by new finds in their monthly boxes.

The Yes was for people who actually browse and shop online in a more active way. It also offered a wide range of brands, from contemporary brands like Vince and Theory to direct-to- consumer brands like Everlane and La Ligne.

Former Stitch Fix COO Julie Bornstein just took the wraps off her app-only e-commerce startup, The Yes

The Yes had built out an extensive fashion taxonomy that used human expertise and machine learning to power it's fashion- finding algorithm. In order to reach other categories that are popular on its site, the system could be developed further.

It is likely that this is related to the growing efforts to attract creators to its platform who now publish videos and livestreams designed to encourage users to shop the products they recommend. As users watch content, they could discover more products and the algorithm would get smarter as they browsed.

In her new role as senior vice president of Shopping atPinterest, Bornstein will be tasked with leading shopping vision and strategy and will report to Ben Silbermann, co-founder and CEO. The creation of a new organization will also be involved. Following the transaction's close, The Yes's 40-person team will joinPinterest.

Silbermann said that the Yes team are experts in building an end to end shopping experience. They share the same goal of making it easy to find the right products that are personalized for you. He said that they were excited about The Yes's team and technology.

According to the company, they saw this deal as a way to bring a combination of top talent, expertise and technology to help accelerate their vision.

Bornstein has seen firsthand the impact of building technology that enables brands to join a platform with ease while enabling customers to share their preferences. It's an exciting and ideal next step for our team and technology if we join forces with pinsy.

As a result of the acquisition, The Yes will be shutting down its app and site and focusing on pinning.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2020.