Bill Gates' 23-Year-Old Daughter Faces Fraud Claims Over Online Venture

Phia: The Shopping App Co-founded by Bill Gates' Daughter Faces Allegations

Phia, a shopping app co-founded by Bill Gates’ daughter, Phoebe Gates, has recently been under scrutiny for alleged misattribution of online sales. The AI-powered browser extension is accused of falsely claiming credit for sales it did not actually drive. According to a report from Bloomberg, the app allegedly registered what were described as “fake clicks” on retail websites, allowing it to claim commission on sales that were never earned.

The issue reportedly stemmed from a glitch introduced into the shopping platform’s source code in December. This flaw allowed the app to open a background tab and inject its own referral code during the checkout process without any user interaction. Known as “cookie stuffing” or attribution fraud, this practice enabled Phia to replace another referrer’s unique code with its own and claim commissions for sales it did not facilitate.

This behavior is considered a violation across many digital platforms' policies. Impact.com, a major affiliate network, suspended Phia's account after identifying actions in its extension that were “inconsistent with our platform policies.”

A spokesperson for Phia acknowledged the issue and stated that it had been resolved. "Within the last 24 hours, we were made aware that in a recent release our codebase was causing misattributions from a subset of users," the statement read, noting that the source code was introduced to Phia’s platform in December. "As soon as we were notified, our team worked overnight to identify, mitigate, and has since resolved the issue."

The company also emphasized that it is regularly audited by its affiliate network partners and has always maintained compliance. Researchers retested Phia’s browser extension in July and found that it had stopped automatically claiming a referral click.

A Rapid Rise and Significant Funding

Phia, an app designed to help shoppers compare prices of clothing and accessories from over 40,000 retail and resale sites, operates on an affiliate revenue model. It earns a commission from any sale made using its browser extension. When users discover a product through Phia’s app and purchase it via an affiliate link, Phia receives a percentage of the sale.

Gates, the youngest daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates, launched Phia in April 2025 alongside her co-founder and former Stanford University roommate, Sophia Kianni. Within just one week of its launch, Phia ranked number 21 on the App Store and reached 20,000 downloads. Three months later, the app surpassed 370,000 downloads.

By September 2025, Phia had exceeded 500,000 downloads and secured $8 million in funding. This was followed by another $35 million in funding in January, valuing the company at $185 million just one year after its launch.

Celebrity Investors and Controversies

Phia has attracted a notable list of celebrity investors, including Kris Jenner, Hailey Bieber, SPANX founder Sara Blakely, Fanatics founder Michael Rubin, and former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Despite its success, the company has faced criticism for its business practices and user data collection.

In November 2024, cybersecurity researchers claimed that Phia had been logging users' web browsing history, including sensitive data such as bank statements and private email accounts, according to a Fortune report. At the time, a spokesperson for Phia explained that the browser extension only logged webpage content “for the purpose of identifying and discovering new retail websites” and had “never” stored any sensitive user data.

The company also noted that users must click OK on a pop-up box when downloading Phia, which states that the tool can “read and change all your data on all websites.”

Recent Backlash and Personal Scrutiny

More recently, Gates faced backlash when content creator Kacie Nicole Margis shared a screenshot of her interaction with Gates over Instagram direct messages. According to the message, Gates offered to give Margis early access to Phia in exchange for a paid social media product. The founder wrote in her message that because Phia is still a “scrappy startup” with a “limited” budget, she was unable to pay Margis her posted rate of $250.

Speaking to the Daily Mail at the time, Margis said it “felt disingenuous” that Gates had described Phia as a “scrappy startup” considering her background and her parents’ “extreme wealth.” Representatives for Gates and Phia did not respond to the Daily Mail’s requests for comment at the time.

Gates is the youngest child of the tech billionaire and his philanthropist ex-wife, who divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage. They also share daughter Jennifer, 29, and son Rory, 26. Her father is the 20th richest person in the world with a net worth of $104 billion, according to Forbes.

However, Gates has maintained that she has never received money from her famous parents for Phia, and instead has relied on outside funding from investors. “My primary motivation is I have a chip on my shoulder to build something generational that has no ties to me, my privilege or my last name,” Gates said on the Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast in February.

The Daily Mail has contacted Phia for comment.

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