The auction format is back — and it is minting young entrepreneurs
Tilt, a London-based livestream marketplace launched in 2023, is producing a new class of Gen Z sellers who are generating serious revenue without a physical storefront, a corporate backer, or a business degree.
The numbers are hard to ignore. One sneaker seller on the platform generates roughly $260,000 in monthly sales, according to the company. A 22-year-old seller named Maddie — who is deaf and has fibromyalgia — surpassed $100,000 in monthly sales in June after starting in 'upper five figures.' A 17-year-old scaled his operation to over $100,000 in sales within a few months, working initially out of his grandmother's bedroom.
'We had this 17-year-old who essentially started in his grandma's bedroom and just scaled his whole business to over $100,000 within a few months,' cofounder Neil Shah told Fortune. 'That's a true testament that you've actually built something where people can go from zero to 100.'
How the platform works
Tilt hosts real-time auctions via livestream. Sellers broadcast items — sneakers, designer clothing, trading cards, luxury watches, sports memorabilia, even liquidation appliances — while buyers bid in real time, ask questions, and compete against one another. The format replaces static product listings with direct seller-to-buyer interaction.
Cofounder Abhinavan Thanendran said the auction mechanic itself was an unexpected driver of growth. 'The auction format being as powerful as it is was definitely a surprise,' he told Fortune. 'Prior to this, you had eBay auctions, but they weren't really exciting. Here, the engagement from buyers on auctions has been incredible.'
The concept traces back to the COVID-19 pandemic, when Thanendran considered how shuttered local shops could keep moving inventory. The idea of sellers livestreaming from inside their stores eventually evolved into a full marketplace.
AI as the competitive edge
Tilt differentiates itself from competitors like California-based Whatnot through a layered AI system that scans, researches, and lists items directly from a seller's livestream. The platform serves a user base of over 1 million buyers.
'It's now just like a multi-layered AI — multimodal, multi-layered — with so many different AI models layered on top of each other to essentially come up with the final result,' Shah said, describing models built to assess product condition, brand, and price. According to Shah, the system correctly identifies products roughly 90% of the time. Seller corrections feed back into the models to sharpen future accuracy.
The founders say the tooling lowers the barrier to entry for first-time sellers. 'One of the most surprising things was how much sellers really hate to list,' Shah said. 'So we set to solve it from the get go.'
Capital behind the growth
Tilt has raised roughly $50 million from investors including Balderton Capital, Earlybird, Seedcamp, TQ Ventures, and Vinted Ventures, the investment arm of secondhand marketplace Vinted.
Livestream commerce has already reshaped retail across China. Western markets have been slower to adopt the model, but platforms like Whatnot — which has reached multibillion-dollar valuations — signal that the shift is underway.
CEO Times take
This is free enterprise working exactly as it should. No government grant, no DEI procurement contract, no legacy institution required — just a platform with clear rules, a market willing to price things honestly, and entrepreneurs willing to show up on camera and compete. A 17-year-old working from his grandmother's bedroom crossing $100,000 in sales is not an anecdote; it is a data point about what low-barrier, technology-enabled markets can do for individual economic mobility.
The livestream auction model also rewards merit in real time: buyers vote with their bids, sellers who perform keep their audience, and the AI infrastructure rewards accuracy over noise. Capital has already answered — $50 million worth. The market has voted.
