# arfa, Inc.

> Founded in New York in 2019, arfa built consumer personal-care brands HIKI and State Of with customer input. It rebranded as Chord in March 2021 to sell the underlying commerce technology, then opened its data platform to other storefronts in 2023. Today Chord sells commerce data infrastructure, AI assistance and activation tools to retail and consumer brands.

- **Founded:** 2019
- **Headquarters:** New York, United States
- **Founders:** Henry Davis (arfa co-founder and original CEO; Chord co-founder and chairman), Bryan Mahoney (Co-founder; Chord CEO; former Glossier CTO), Ariel Wengroff (arfa co-founder; HIKI brand development), Shabdha Chigurupati (arfa co-founder; VP of Business Development and Finance)
- **Products:** HIKI, State Of, Chord commerce infrastructure, Platform-agnostic commerce data, Chord AI / Copilot
- **Notable:** Reported more than 20,000 HIKI products distributed across all 50 US states during the 2020 giveaway., Acquired Yaguara and launched Chord in 2021., Opened the data product to other commerce platforms in 2023.

## Products & services

- **HIKI** — Original sweat-care brand: deodorant, antiperspirant, anti-chafe stick, powder and wipes.
- **State Of** — Original menopause-focused personal-care brand launched in August.
- **Chord commerce infrastructure** — API-first headless commerce and integrated data tools; launched under the Chord name.
- **Platform-agnostic commerce data** — Data consolidation and commerce modeling available without adopting Chord’s storefront.
- **Chord AI / Copilot** — Conversational analysis, audience tools and marketing activation built on commerce data.
- **Enriched Context Stack** — Context infrastructure to improve the reliability of AI assistance and commerce agents.

## Achievements

- Reported more than 20,000 HIKI products distributed across all 50 US states during the 2020 giveaway.
- Acquired Yaguara and launched Chord in 2021.
- Opened the data product to other commerce platforms in 2023.
- Caraway case study reports a 20% conversion lift; vendor-reported, not an independently measured general result.

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Announced $7 million led by Equal Ventures to develop its commerce AI context platform.
- **2026-05** — CEO explained the platform-agnostic data pivot and starting access fee in a Practical Ecommerce interview.
- **2026-08** — Published updated terms of service for Chord Commerce, Inc.

## Links

- Website: https://chordcommerce.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chordcommerce/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/chordcommerce
- GitHub: https://github.com/chordcommerce
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChordCommerce
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arfabrands/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/arfa-inc
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-04