Tilt Raises $26M as Vinted Ventures Backs Europe’s Live Commerce Challenger
London-based live shopping startup Tilt has closed a $26 million funding round, with Vinted Ventures entering as a new investor alongside existing backers Balderton Capital, TQ Ventures, Earlybird, and Seedcamp. The Tilt live commerce funding push takes the company’s total capital raised to more than $50 million, a significant milestone as competition for Europe’s live shopping market intensifies.
Ex-Revolut Founders Are Building Something Serious
Tilt was founded in 2021 by Abhi Thanendran and Neil Shah, both early employees at Revolut. Thanendran served as the fintech’s first data scientist, while Shah was its fifth employee, leading international expansion. They built Tilt on the belief that online retail had become efficient but soulless, and that live video could bring back the human element. The platform lets sellers host real-time auctions and interact directly with buyers across the UK, Italy, Spain, and Poland.
Since its Series A in 2024, Tilt claims eightfold growth. Buyers spend over an hour daily on the app, with 70% returning weekly and repeat buyers driving around 70% of monthly GMV. These are retention numbers that suggest community, not just commerce.
The platform’s AI stack is a key differentiator. Its “Snap” tool converts a held-up product into a structured listing within seconds. A real-time AI copilot assists sellers with pricing and buyer interactions during streams, while natural language search lets buyers find products across live sessions. Automated clip-farming tools also repurpose stream content into shareable assets.
Critically, Tilt charges buyers rather than sellers the same fee model that powered Vinted’s dominance over eBay in Europe lowering the barrier for independent sellers to launch businesses without ad budgets or upfront capital.
The fresh capital will fund AI development, geographic expansion, and team growth. Tilt goes up against Whatnot, which raised $225 million at an $11.5 billion valuation in late 2025, making Europe’s live commerce crown very much still up for grabs.
