Phoebe Gates, 23, and Sophia Kianni co-founded Phia, a digital personal shopping assistant that uses a browser extension at checkout. reported they had known for at least seven months that Phia was overcounting sales commissions through cookie stuffing, a practice tied to sales credit on orders at Nike, Gap and Nordstrom.
The reported misattribution traced back to at least December and appeared to make up much of Phia’s revenue. In June, cookie stuffing accounted for about 51% of the merchandise value Phia claimed credit for selling, and after the features were disabled in July, average daily revenue reportedly fell from around $80,000 to between $10,000 and $28,000.
Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni
Phia said in July that it had reacted with shock to reports that it was dropping more web cookies than it should and said it learned of the issue within the last 24 hours. A spokesperson later said, Phoebe Gates knew about cookie stuffing since December 18, and added, “Any features causing misattributions were immediately removed over a month ago on July 7.”
The company also said, “We are reviewing every transaction, we are fully committed to and have already begun issuing all transaction reversals to brand partners as a result of any misattribution, and we are hiring a head of compliance to make sure something like this never happens again.” It said it was continuing to connect users with items and offers from thousands of brand partners.
Internal Slack
Internal Slack messages reviewed by showed Kianni and Gates were aware of features that dropped cookies into the checkout process even when customers did not use Phia. That reported gap between the company’s public statement and the messages adds the main point of friction in the story: Phia said the issue was newly discovered, while reported the co-founders had known about it for months.
Ariel Givner said on X, “It’s typically treated as federal wire fraud in US courts. There’s a possibility of a max penalty of up to 20 years prison + fines/restitution.” Phia raised $30 million in 2025 from backers including Hailey Bieber, Kris Jenner and Sara Blakely, and the company’s next practical step is the one it has already started: transaction reversals for affected brand partners and tighter compliance oversight.
