Entering the Gates of Lies: Unmasking the Climate Version of Theranos

A recent media investigation determined the younger Gates and her cofounder, climate influencer Sophia Kianni’s self-described sustainable e-commerce startup, Phia, was fraudulently collecting sales commissions. Phia was marketed as a climate-friendly platform that directed shoppers to secondhand products. Unsurprisingly, the startup created its own climate of lies.

Phia claims to be climate-friendly by promoting secondhand clothing options. Co-founder Sophia Kianni described Phia as having a fundamental “sustainability aspect … buying an item secondhand actually represents an 80% reduction in carbon footprint compared to buying new.” Before studying at Stanford University, Ms. Kianni founded a major Left-wing climate activism organization called Climate Cardinals and served as a climate ambassador at COP27 in Egypt. Gates, for her part, frequently touts her sustainability and climate bona fides. Like father, like daughter. 

On the surface, Phia appeared to be successful and profitable. The company secured considerable amounts of seed funding, totaling over $43 million, and had a reported valuation of $185 million by early 2026. 

Yet, Phia reportedly was cheating the system. The startup was allegedly using computer code to claim it facilitated numerous purchases—and thus collect a portion of sales—that it had nothing to do with. According to computer experts who investigated the coding behind Phia’s platform, a plug-in extension, quietly, unknown to the user, opened an invisible tab in the background. Doing so digitally registered Phia, falsely, as an affiliate marketer involved in the online transaction. Since some revenue in online commerce automatically goes to the affiliate marketer who was the final click before the user’s purchase, Phia made itself that final click—even though it was not—and earned millions. 

Just as damning, Phia’s damage-control efforts sowed more doubts about their fishy operations. Phia’s spokesperson responded to allegations, stating that “as soon as we were notified, our team worked overnight to identify, mitigate, and has since resolved the issue.” In other words, the company supposedly resolved the issue, but didn’t deny any wrongdoing. 

Phia’s reputation could be in jeopardy. It received investment from celebrities such as Sydney Sweeney, Khloé Kardashian, Jessica Alba, Kris Jenner, and Hailey Bieber. Those investors may now wonder how much deception and incompetence is going on behind the scenes related to other facets of Phia’s business model. In fact, this isn’t Phia’s first scandal. In November, Phia was reportedly busted capturing a “concerning amount of user data,” according to reports, including collecting users’ banking information. 

A former senior executive for Climate Cardinals, who wishes to stay anonymous, has now come forward about Kianni’s mismanagement style to the author/yours truly. The anonymous whistleblower shared, “I was involved for two years and we didn't really do anything. It ruined my perspective for prestige.” The whistleblower alleges that a company executive told him “all the numbers on the website are artificially inflated. None of them are real.” Soon after, the company experienced a mass exodus of personnel, who decided that, in the source’s words, they “no longer wanted to be part of the lies.” After Kianni migrated to Phia, her past stayed with her. In order to get ahead, Sophia lied about a fake assistant and even bragged about it. 

It is worth asking: is Phia on the path to being Theranos 2.0? The parallels to Theranos, the disastrous tech startup that investigative journalists exposed as being among the greatest scams of modern times—ultimately costing inventors billions of dollars—are uncanny. Oddly enough, founders of both companies started their company at Stanford and faced rejection there, helping place a “chip on their shoulder,” in Phoebe Gates’s words. 

Both of these startups had great ideas in theory—but they did not survive reality. In fact, they never tried. That is also the case for the climate movement writ large.

Climate alarmism, itself a scam, is a macrocosm of the Phia story. It’s a movement based on activism, not facts, and its fundamental claims don’t hold up under scrutiny. Climate programs also received billions of government funds under President Biden, until the judicious Trump administration took notice and ended the gravy train. Falsehoods and fear mongering can be quite lucrative.

Phia should serve as a cautionary tale for the future of so-called climate investment—and the climate movement itself.

Sydney Rodman is a visiting fellow at Independent Women’s Center for Energy and Conservation.