Tilt

$26M raised: Tilt has closed $26 million in fresh funding with Vinted Ventures as the new strategic backer, alongside existing investors TQ Ventures, Balderton Capital, Earlybird, and Seedcamp. Balderton led the $18 million Series A in 2024. Total funding now sits north of $50 million. The London company has roughly 60 people and was founded in 2021 by Abhi Thanendran (CEO) and Neil Shah, both alumni of Revolut.\n\nTilt is a mobile-first live-video shopping app. Sellers run live auctions and chat-driven sales sessions across fashion, collectibles, beauty, and resale. Buyers watch streams, bid in real time, and pay through the app. The pricing model is the structural bet. Tilt charges buyers, not sellers, which lowers the barrier for indie sellers to start without ad budgets. The platform is now active in the UK, Italy, Spain, and Poland, claims 8x growth since the Series A, and reports buyers spending more than an hour per day on the app, with 70% returning weekly and repeat buyers driving roughly 70% of monthly GMV.\n\nThe AI layer is the new product. Snap turns a product shown on stream into a listing in seconds. An AI copilot helps sellers with pricing and customer responses. Natural-language search lets buyers find items across live streams. Automated clip generation pushes content off-platform to TikTok and Instagram. The competitive set is brutal: Whatnot crossed an $11.5 billion valuation last October, Palmstreet is a16z-backed in the US, TikTok Shop is everywhere, and eBay Live is the legacy alternative.\n\nThe new capital accelerates the AI roadmap, expands the seller base into more European markets, pushes toward the US, and grows the team. Vinted Ventures as lead is the loudest signal in the round. Europe's largest resale marketplace is making a strategic bet on live commerce.