Bill Gates’s nepo-daughter Phoebe is accused of breaking platform policies with new shopping app that’s said to have used ‘FAKE’ clicks to make money

Phia, the shopping app co-founded by Bill Gates‘s daughter Phoebe Gates, 23, has been accused of wrongfully taking credit for online sales it didn’t actually drive.

The AI-powered browser extension allegedly registered what was described as ‘fake clicks’ on retail websites, ultimately claiming commission on sales the company never earned, according to a report from Bloomberg. The glitch, which Phia has since fixed, was reportedly introduced to the shopping platform’s source code in December. 

Phia is an app designed to help shoppers get the best bang for their buck by comparing prices of clothing and accessories from over 40,000 retail and resale sites.

The start-up company works by relying on affiliate revenue, as Phia receives a commission from any sale purchased using their browser extension. 

When users discover a clothing item or product through Phia’s app and purchase that item through an affiliate link, Phia earns a percentage of the resulting sale.

However, an investigation by Bloomberg, Capital One Shopping and Ben Edelman, an independent researcher, discovered that Phia’s app had opened a background tab and injected its own referral code during the checkout process without any user interaction.

Known as ‘cookie stuffing’ or attribution fraud, Phia registered what was called ‘fake clicks’ on retailers’ websites, allowing it to replace another referrer’s unique code with its own and claim commission for sales it never earned.

The practice is largely considered a violation across many digital platforms’ policies. Impact.com, a major affiliate network, told Bloomberg it suspended Phia’s account after identifying behavior in its extension that was ‘inconsistent with our platform policies.’

Gates, 23, is the youngest daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (left) and his philanthropist ex-wife Melinda French Gates (pictured in June 2022)

A spokesperson for Phia acknowledged the issue and told Bloomberg it had been fixed.

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

Gates is the youngest daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates. In April 2025, she launched Phia alongside her co-founder and former Stanford University roommate, Sophia Kianni.

In just one week after launch, Phia was ranked number 21 on the App Store and reached 20,000 downloads. Three months later, they reached over 370,000 downloads.

By September 2025, Phia surpassed a reported 500,000 downloads and received $8 million in funding. That was followed by another $35 million in funding last January, valuing the company at $185 million just one year after launch.

Phia also boasts an impressive list of celebrity investors, including Kris Jenner, Hailey Bieber, SPANX founder Sara Blakely, Fanatics founder Michael Rubin and former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Phia, which launched last year, is already valued at over $180 million. Kris Jenner and Hailey Bieber are among Phia’s list of celebrity investors

Phia compares prices for clothing and accessories from over 40,000 retail and resale sites in real time to give customers the best bang for their buck

Despite Phia’s success, the company has already been under fire for its business practices and user data collection.

Last November, cybersecurity researchers claimed 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 has only logged webpage content ‘for the purpose of identifying and discovering new retail websites,’ and has ‘never’ stored any sensitive user data.

The company also pointed out that in order to download Phia, users must click OK on a pop-up box noting that the tool can ‘read and change all your data on all websites.’

Most 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.

The Phia co-founder has said she’s never received money from her famous parents for Phia (pictured in September 2023 with Melinda French Gates)

Gates’s father is the 20th richest person in the world with a net worth of $104 billion, according to Forbes

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’s 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.