- Talkshoplive — a Los Angeles-based livestream commerce company — announced it raised $6 million. These are the details.
Talkshoplive — a Los Angeles-based livestream commerce company — announced it raised $6 million in a seed extension funding round led by Raine Ventures and a syndicate of renowned angel investors in the entertainment and retail industries. Spero Ventures had led TSL’s first seed investment round. With this funding round, the company has raised $10.5 million to date.
As TSL is continuing to expand adoption of its proprietary shoppable and embeddable player, the partnership with Raine will create additional opportunities for mass livestream commerce adoption.
The seed extension funding will accelerate the expansion of TSL’s embeddable player network, scale product management and technical teams, and operationalize increased demand from sellers and customers worldwide. And since launching its embeddable player in Q2 of 2019, TSL’s user base and average sales have continued to grow across categories. This year, sales have grown on average 85% month over month with Q1 2021 sales increasing over 440% compared to the quarter in 2020.
Along with Raine, a syndicate of prominent angel investors are joining the seed extension financing. The syndicate includes:
— Matt Blank, Former Chairman & CEO of Showtime, and Director of Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Cumulus Media, and CuriosityStream
— David Levy, Chairman of Genius Sports and former President of Turner
— Eva Jeanbart-Lorenzotti, Founder of Vivre, V by Eva, and retail visionary
— Jeff Lotman, CEO of Fred Segal & Global Icons
— Andrew Rosen, Founder of Theory
— Austin Rosen, Founder Electric Feel Entertainment, Electric Feel Ventures
— Richard Rosenblatt, Founder of Whip Media, Demand Media, Intermix, and iMall
Some of the stars and brands who have launched their own talkshoplive channels include Oprah Winfrey, Best Buy, Fred Segal, Paul McCartney, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Dolly Parton, Alicia Keys, Conde Nast, Michelle Williams, Leslie Jordan, Patti LaBelle, Julie Andrews, Meghan Trainor, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Tim Tebow, Kristin Cavallari, Tim McGraw, Jenna Dewan, and Kathy Ireland Worldwide.
KEY QUOTES:
“We could not be more excited and grateful to be joining with Raine. Raine’s experience in evolving consumer trends to mainstream global behaviors is both differentiated and is the perfect match for TSL’s next phase of growth. Gordon Rubenstein and Raine, along with an incredible syndicate of angel investors, bring unique insights and credibility, adding tremendous value to TSL as we expand our network worldwide.”
— Bryan Moore, co-founder and CEO of talkshoplive
“Our team has closely watched the development of live commerce in the US and reviewed a number of different strategies in the space. We believe that talkshoplive has a differentiated technology and strategy that will continue to drive adoption of live commerce. In the case of TSL, not only is there a clear value proposition that engages, supports, and aligns incentives of all key players across the retail landscape, but also a fantastic team. We are thrilled to partner with TSL, and to support the team as they cement their leadership position in livestream commerce.”
— Gordon Rubenstein, Managing Partner of Raine Ventures
