Phia, the hopping tartup co-founded by Bill Gate ’ daughter, Phoebe Gate , and Sophia Kianni, ha been accu ed of a practice known a “cookie tuffing,” which may have helped the product receive commi ion and credit for ale it did not actually generate, according to a Bloomberg inve tigation.
The report ha parked controver y and led to Phia’ u pen ion from Impact.com, a leading affiliate and influencer platform. Other tartup have been ued over “cookie tuffing,” notably Honey, which i owned by PayPal and remain the ubject of an ongoing cla action law uit.
Founded in 2025, Phia ha rai ed more than $40 million in funding and ha a tar- tudded li t of inve tor , including Khloé Karda hian and Hailey Bieber. The tartup developed an app a a brow er exten ion that work omewhat like Google Flight , but for hopping. Phia help cu tomer find the lowe t-priced item acro variou retailer a well a di count code to u e when hopping. The company take a commi ion on purcha e made through the platform, an indu try practice known a affiliate marketing.
The Bloomberg inve tigation, a well a finding from an independent con ultant and a competitor, found that if a u er hopped at an online retailer — even if they arrived at the ite on their own or through another affiliate program like Wirecutter — Phia would open a new tab in the background. During the checkout proce , Phia would override the referral code from other affiliate and in tead inject it own, allowing it to take credit for and potentially receive a commi ion on a purcha e it didn’t earn.
Once the i ue wa flagged to Phia, a poke per on told Bloomberg that all nece ary change had been made to fix the i ue. A check by Bloomberg found the i ue had been re olved. It’ unclear if the fix i enough to ati fy the retailer and affiliate partner that work with Phia.
TechCrunch reached out to Phia for comment and ha not received a re pon e.
Thi article wa updated to clarify the celeb inve tor in the company.
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