Tilt, a live shopping auction app that says it uses AI to make selling online faster and easier, has raised $26 million in funding.
The London-based startup, founded in 2021 by ex-Revolut employees Abhi Thanendran and Neil Shah, has raised $50 million to date.
Buyers select a category on the app — such as womenswear or trading cards — and scroll through livestream auctions much like TikTok videos. Sellers go live to showcase their products, while viewers bid and buy in real time — a format often described as QVC for the social media generation.
Tilt says it uses AI in nearly every step of the selling process. Its Snap tool, for example, automates the process by creating an auction listing when the seller holds an item up to the camera. It auto-generates product descriptions and suggests pricing in seconds, Tilt says.
"Live commerce is very hard on the seller, and they have to do a lot of things," cofounder and CEO Thanendran told Business Insider. "With the AI technology, we can actually take away a lot of those problems."
There is a copilot — which Thanendran described as a kind of live coach — which prompts sellers in real time on how to improve the auction, while an agentic search function helps buyers find items across different live sessions.
AI clip-farming, posted on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, is also used to help sellers grow.
"A big part of Tilt is we want to help anybody start from nothing and become superstars," Thanendran said.
Tilt makes money by charging fees, mainly on the buyer side, with a smaller portion coming from the seller side. Its 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 secondhand resale platform Vinted, joined the funding round alongside existing investors including Balderton Capital, Earlybird, and Seedcamp.
Thanendran said the funding will be used to build more AI-powered products and improve discovery, continue scaling the team, and expand into new markets across Europe and into the US.
Here's an exclusive look at the nine-page pitch deck Tilt used to raise $26 million:
Tilt is a live auction app powered by AI.
The startup was cofounded by Neil Shah and Abhi Thanendran, who is also the CEO.
It aims to use AI to make buying and selling live online easier.
It views the global live commerce market as a major growth opportunity.
Tilt believes selling online is difficult for people without a large existing following.
Tilt wants to help sellers who start with nothing 'become superstars.'
Tilt says there is growing interest in how live commerce can become popular in Western markets.
Tilt says its AI tools streamline the selling process.
One of its AI tools, Snap, can instantly turn an item held up to the camera into a listing.
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Roya is a business news fellow at Business Insider's London office.Before joining Business Insider, she worked as a reporter at financial newswire Alliance News and was a platforms and publishing intern at The Wall Street Journal. Roya graduated from City St George's, University of London with an MA in International Journalism. You can contact her via email at [email protected] or message her securely on Signal at royashahidi.36
