Live-shopping has grown into a massive sector in Asia, but the phenomenon is yet to see similar uptake in Western markets. But two tech founders are hoping the growth-hacking skills they learned at Revolt will power up their startup in the U.K. live-shopping arena, and now they have the confidence of major investors.
That confidence is coming as an $18 million Series A funding round, led by Balderton Capital, for U.K.-based live-shopping startup Tilt. And it seems to be backed up by decent traction: The company claims to have garnered more than half-a-million users since it was launched early last year.
Founded by two early ex-Revolut employees, Neil Shah and Abhi Thanendran, Tilt says its success has been the result of its focus on live sales of fashion items.
Live e-commerce sales have become a phenomenon because of the addictive nature of watching someone sell in real-time, creating the appearance (at least) of an authentic and fun environment. This contrasts with the traditional online shopping experience, which can feel static, by comparison, and indeed is.
Livestreamed e-commerce shopping in China is expected to grow 25% to $703.27 billion this year. Indeed, McKinsey predicts that 10% to 20% of all e-commerce will take the form of livestreamed shopping by 2026. And it’s estimated half of China’s internet users participated in a live-selling event last year.
However, in the U.S., only around 35% of respondents to a survey said they’d purchased something from a livestreamed event — and in the U.K. that figure is even worse, at only 25%.
This opportunity has led TikTok to devote a lot of resources and effort in the U.S. to replicate its live-shopping success in China. Amazon has also been increasing its investments in its own Amazon Live platform, with an Amazon Live channel on Prime.
Over a call, Tilt’s CEO and co-founder, Thanendran, told TechCrunch that while there have been attempts to copy-paste live-shopping apps from China in the West, most have not taken off. “The more important thing is finding the right market to create that experience,” he said.
“You have to think about who’s the right age group or niche of consumers. Our approach has been to target Gen Z. They’re very used to these unique apps and experiences from online gaming and watching Twitch streams. We’ve chosen to go with fashion, and I think we’ve cracked the code here,” he added.
Tilt’s real-time streams bring an in-store shopping feel, and the app allows for deals and offers to be made while users are on the stream. The app also lets users hold live auctions, “boosts” and interactive events. It’s in the top 10 of the U.K. Shopping app charts, above Depop and eBay.
Thanendran was previously a quantitative analyst at hedge funds in New York, and joined Revolut as the company’s first data scientist. His co-founder, Neil Shah, formerly led Revolut’s international expansion and authorizations divisions.
Shah added, “Revolut is known for shipping products extremely quickly and fast, and having this huge suite of products and testing out things extremely quickly. I think that’s really where we excelled at with [Tilt].”
Live-shopping has proved a tough nut to crack in the West. Nearly three in five U.S. adults (57%) are either uninterested in or unaware of live-shopping, according to Bizrate Insights.
But Shah stressed that the Tilt app is built to be sticky. “We have a focus on the real-time aspect. For example, sellers can host live giveaways during the stream. This will keep you on the stream as a user, because you want to see whether you will win the giveaway or not. And we have auctions. People are really excited to see where an item ends up.”
He is confident of hooking-in users and growing the market. “The reality is, as time goes on, we see that none of [our competitors] are executing or growing as fast as we are,” he said. “When we compare what we’ve delivered in just the last year to any of the other big players, it’s a significant difference in the number of features and the growth and how we’ve tapped into the community for fashion in the U.K.”
In a statement, Daniel Waterhouse, partner at Balderton Capital, said: “Tilt has cracked live shopping in the UK: Adding over half a million users within their first year of launch – something which many of the big players have failed at despite successes in Asia. With Neil and Abhi’s relentless focus on innovative features and community engagement to deliver the best experiences for buyers and sellers alike, we’re excited to work with the team to take Tilt to the next level.”