Tilt, a live shopping auction app that claims to use AI to make online sales faster and easier, has raised $26 million in funding.
The London-based startup was founded in 2021 by former Revolut employees Abhi Sanendran and Neil Shah and has raised $50 million to date.
Buyers select categories such as women’s clothing or trading cards on the app and scroll through livestream auctions, similar to TikTok videos. Sellers present their products live, and viewers bid and buy in real time. This is a format often referred to as QVC for the social media generation.
Tilt says it uses AI in nearly every step of the sales process. For example, the company’s Snap tool automates the process by creating an auction listing when a seller holds an item up to the camera. Tilt says it automatically generates product descriptions and suggests prices in seconds.
“Live commerce is very demanding on sellers, and they have to do a lot of things,” co-founder and CEO Sanendran told Business Insider. “With AI technology, we can actually eliminate many of these problems.”
There’s a co-pilot, which Sanendran described as a kind of live coach, instructing sellers in real time on how to improve their auctions, while an agent search feature helps buyers find items in various live sessions.
AI clip farming, posted on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, is also used to help sellers grow.
“The big thing about Tilt is that we want to help anyone start from scratch and become a superstar,” Sanendran said.
Tilt makes money primarily by charging fees to buyers, with a small portion coming from sellers. Key competitors include TikTok Shop and eBay Live.
The latest funding round was led by TQ Ventures. Vinted Ventures, the investment arm of Lithuanian-founded second-hand resale platform Vinted, participated in the funding round along with existing investors including Balderton Capital, Earlybird, and Seedcamp.
Sanendran said the funding will be used to build more AI-powered products and improve discovery, continue to grow the team, and expand into new markets across Europe and into the United States.
Here’s an exclusive look at the nine-page pitch deck Tilt used to raise $26 million.