# Allison Lee

> Allison Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Revive, a New York fashion-tech company that helps brands recover value from returned and unsellable inventory through AI-driven inspection, refurbishment, and resale. A Korean immigrant who arrived in the U.S. at 13 and studied psychology at UC Berkeley, she first built Hemster, a SaaS tailoring platform, in 2017. When the pandemic stalled in-store tailoring, she pivoted the underlying fit-data infrastructure into Revive, which she has grown 46x in under a year and which has processed roughly $23M in merchandise. She is a 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree.

- **Role:** Co-founder & CEO at Revive
- **Organizations:** Revive, Hemster, Peel
- **From:** South Korea
- **Nationality:** American (born in South Korea)
- **Education:** Psychology, UC Berkeley
- **Known for:** Forbes 30 Under 30 (2019), Founded Hemster, described as the first SaaS tailoring and repair platform for retailers, Grew Peel revenue from $20K to $15M ARR in under two years

## Career timeline

- **pre-2017** — Director of Monetization at Peel, an Alibaba-backed IoT company; grew revenue from $20K to $15M ARR in under two years
- **2017** — Founded Hemster, a SaaS tailoring and repair platform; launched Hemster 1.0 in fitting rooms at Westfield San Francisco Centre
- **2019** — Named to Forbes 30 Under 30; Hemster personalized ~50,000 items
- **2020** — Pandemic halts in-store tailoring; begins pivot using existing fit-data infrastructure
- **2021-2024** — Builds Revive into a returns and unsellable-inventory recovery platform; grows it 46x in under a year
- **2024** — Revive raises $3.5M led by Equal Ventures; processed ~$23M in merchandise to date

## Achievements

- Forbes 30 Under 30 (2019)
- Founded Hemster, described as the first SaaS tailoring and repair platform for retailers
- Grew Peel revenue from $20K to $15M ARR in under two years
- Pivoted Hemster into Revive after the pandemic and grew it 46x in under a year
- Revive raised $3.5M led by Equal Ventures (with Hustle Fund, Coalition Operators, Banter Capital, Charge Ventures)
- Revive processed roughly $23M in merchandise
- Featured by TechCrunch, WWD, and at Shoptalk

## Latest updates

- **2024-06** — Revive announced a $3.5M raise led by Equal Ventures to help brands recover value from unstockable and returned inventory.

## Links

- Website: https://byrevive.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonhyeinlee

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/allison-lee
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-14