From teenage entrepreneur to AI founder, Nigerian-American technologist John Imah went on to launch SpreeAI in 2023 to address uncertainty in online fashion sizing.
Before founding a billion-dollar company, John Imah was building – and selling – startups before he could legally drive. Today, he is the co-founder and CEO of SpreeAI, a $1.5 billion retail technology startup using AI to power photorealistic virtual try-ons and sizing tools designed to reduce returns and change how people shop online.
SpreeAI is the result of years of technical curiosity and early experimentation. Imah was raised in a Nigerian household in Dallas, Texas, where his parents, like many immigrant families seeking stability, hoped he would pursue a conventional profession such as law or medicine.
But from an early age, he was drawn to computers and the mechanics behind them. By elementary school, he was already dismantling the household computer just to understand how it worked.
During an interview on the “Black Tech Green Money” podcast, he said it was moments like those that – despite his parents’ initial frustration – revealed his instinct for understanding how technology could shape everyday life.
The early curiosities that shape a founder’s mindset
His childhood curiosity soon evolved into building. By his mid-teens, Imah had taught himself to code and was already shipping startups within mobile games and 3D tools. Before turning 16, he had reportedly founded and sold two of them.
After college, he joined major tech companies, including Snapchat, Twitch, and Meta, working in various engineering and product roles. Building a career spanning some of Silicon Valley’s largest platforms helped shape the technical and product thinking that would eventually lead to the creation of SpreeAI.
In 2023, Imah set out to solve the disconnect between digital shopping and the physical reality of clothing, a problem he had long observed in online retail.
Anyone who shops for clothes online knows the gamble: what looks good on a model may not look the same when it arrives at your door. And that’s exactly what SpreeAI is trying to change.
The company has developed AI-powered virtual try-ons that show shoppers how clothes might look on their own bodies, supported by a sizing system the fashion tech startup says can predict fit with up to 99% accuracy.
Positioning SpreeAI as the solution to one of retail’s biggest problems
Imah has also outlined longer-term ideas with SpreeAI, such as an AI stylist that could offer personalized outfit suggestions and a virtual wardrobe where users can organize their clothing digitally.
In the meantime, as the platform continues to scale, investors have taken notice. In May 2025, SpreeAI raised an undisclosed funding round led by The Davidson Group, pushing the company to a $1.5 billion valuation and unicorn status.
The startup has also attracted high-profile board members, including supermodel Naomi Campbell, who joined alongside entrepreneurs Bob Davidson and Larry Ruvo. The roster reflects a broader push to put fashion industry credibility and global visibility into the company’s next stage of growth.
For Imah, though, the journey to founding SpreeAI has never really felt like a single defining moment. Instead, it was the result of years spent building, experimenting, and following a curiosity that started long before his first line of code.
Stories like his often remind founders that careers in technology rarely begin with a perfect plan. More often, they begin with small experiments that you just can’t help but try. And sometimes, if that curiosity is followed long enough, it turns into something much bigger than anyone expected.
