Asos is vying to snap up innovative tech companies with its new venture capital arm as its boss predicts tech will revolutionise fashion in the next five years.

Daniel Bobroff, investment director at the venture capital arm that Asos set up at the beginning of the year, told World Retail Congress: “We feel like fashion tech is just at the beginning. There’s loads of tech from other sectors such as gaming will have an untold effect on how you buy fashion in the next five years.”

Bobroff, who was a mobile technology entrepreneur before joining Asos in January, believes that technology such as Oculus Rift and 3D printing have the potential to “change everything”.

He is understood to be seeking to buy and work with innovative technology firms, between start-up and Series A Funding level, to help boost Asos’s business.

His LinkedIn profile reads: “Asos tore up the rule book to redefine online fashion. We became the world’s leading fashion tech company.

“Today, we are looking to support the next generation of “out of the box” thinkers. We are looking for disruptive design, beautiful software, great developers and fashion tech’s game changers. If that’s you, then we think that we can help you on your journey.”

Bobroff said creating a culture where the “entrepreneurial engineers” that Asos wants to work with “feel they can change the world” is important.

Meanwhile, Bobroff also said that wearable technology could help boost customer insight. He said: “It will allow us to understand our target audience in a way that even now we don’t, which will help us in terms of personalisation.”

Bobroff said younger customers expect retailers to personalise their experience. He said: “The millennial audience are happy to give you data but only if you serve them. You should know what they want and when they want it.”

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