More than 200 retail executives, investors, Lab alumni and members of the press gathered in New York on September 10 for the New York Fashion Tech Lab’s 2026 Experiential Tech Event.
For TruRating, the showcase marked the culmination of its involvement in the 2026 Collective since being selected in June, and a chance to put its approach to consumer intelligence in front of some of the biggest names in fashion and retail.
Hosted at The Penthouse at NeueHouse during New York Fashion Week and co-hosted with N4XT Experiences, the event brought together all 11 companies selected for this year’s Collective. Rather than running a traditional demo day with a series of stage pitches, the Lab gave each company its own station, allowing guests to move around the room, see the technology and speak directly with the teams behind it.
That more conversational format reflected the thinking behind the Collective itself, by creating more opportunities for direct dialogue between retail leaders and the companies working on problems across customer experience, data, operations and commerce.
The NY Fashion Tech Lab 2026 Collective featured on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square, New York, September 9, 2026. Credit: NYFTLab.
Selected by retail
Now in its 13th year, the New York Fashion Tech Lab is a nonprofit program founded by Springboard Enterprises that supports women-led B2B retail technology companies and connects them with retailers and brands.
The 2026 program introduced a new Collective model and expanded to 11 companies, the largest group in the Lab’s history. More than 90 companies from over 20 countries have now taken part in the Lab, with alumni collectively raising more than $550 million.
Selection for this year’s Collective ran through finalist sessions at the SAP Experience Center in New York in April and June. Executives from the Lab’s retail and brand partners reviewed the companies and voted for those they were most interested in engaging with further. Partners included AEO Inc., Gap Inc., J.Crew Group, Kohl’s, lululemon, Saks Global, The TJX Companies, VF Corporation and Steve Madden.
TruRating was selected in the June group and went on to take part in the Lab’s curated programming ahead of the September showcase. The Lab describes TruRating as: “Consumer intelligence, captured at the moment of purchase, paired with every transaction.”
Members of the 2026 Collective. New York, September 9, 2026. Credit: NYFTLab.
Bringing a missing signal into fashion retail
Fashion retailers can measure the digital journey in extraordinary detail. They know what shoppers viewed, searched, clicked and abandoned. Inside the store, getting the same depth of customer signal is harder.
TruRating captures feedback as part of the payment experience, while the visit is still fresh, then pairs each response with the corresponding transaction. That means retailers can look at what customers say alongside what they bought and spent.
For fashion and apparel businesses, that can provide another source of evidence around questions such as store execution, service behaviors, fitting-room experiences, promotions and new formats. It gives teams a continuous, transaction-linked signal that can sit alongside existing research, sales data and customer experience programs.
Members of the NY Fashion Tech Lab 2026 Collective at the Experiential Tech Event at NeueHouse, New York, September 10, 2026.
Forbes: the race for better customer signals
The Collective also received coverage from Forbes ahead of the event. Writing on September 8, Angela Chan-Danisi looked at the 11 participating companies and the themes they are addressing across modern retail.
Her section on TruRating focused on a question that has become increasingly important as retailers gain access to more data: whether the underlying customer signal is good enough to make decisions from.
“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.”
Georgina Nelson, CEO & Founder, TruRating, Forbes 2026
Read Angela Chan-Danisi’s full Forbes article.
TruRating CEO Georgina Nelson in Times Square as TruRating and the 2026 Collective were featured on the Nasdaq Tower, New York, September 9, 2026. Credit: NYFTLab.
A strong signal from the industry
The day before the showcase, the New York Fashion Tech Lab put all 11 Collective companies on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square, including TruRating’s logo and Georgina’s portrait.
The image made for a visible moment in New York. More important was the competitive selection process involving nine major retail and brand groups, followed by direct engagement with the industry through the Lab’s programming and New York Fashion Week showcase.
TruRating has spent years helping enterprise businesses connect customer experience with transaction data and understand what is happening at the point of purchase. The 2026 Collective provided an opportunity to bring that approach more directly into the fashion and apparel conversation, with the retailers and brands shaping where the category goes next.
Learn more about the NY Fashion Tech Lab 2026 Collective.
