Israeli livestream shopping platform Buywith completed a $9.5 million seed round for an on-site livestream buying events with influencers, experts, and brand reps, while viewers engage with the hosts and shop live.
The Seed round was led by igniteXL Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based global seed fund, investing in game-changing founders driven by technology, beauty, and wellness.
Live commerce was already a major success in China, where revenues are projected to reach $423 billion by 2022, but Buywith is one of the few outsides of China to provide it.
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“In light of the explosive rise of livestream shopping in Asia, we are set to witness the quick expansion of this channel in the West. buywith, unlike existing Livestream buying solutions, organizes live shopping sessions directly on the brand’s website, engaging customers where they are and raising the conversion rate in eCommerce to unprecedented levels,” according to Claire Chang, General Partner at igniteXL Ventures.”
Founded in 2018 by Adi Ronen Almagor and Eyal Sinai Buywith has offices in Tel Aviv, but registered a U.S. company, and is opening offices in the United Kingdom to strengthen its footprint in the European market.
Buywith enables brands and online retailers to hold livestream shopping events with thousands of real-time viewers. The livestream includes influencers, celebrities, experts, and brand representatives who take viewers on a shopping trip on the website, recommend lifestyle products, and instruct them on how to use them, all while providing authentic tips to assist end-users in selecting the right products for them. During the livestream, castumers may ask questions in a chat, receive additional information from the company, and enjoy special discounts on purchases.
Buywith, already working with Walmart, and MAC Cosmeticsis is also launching partnerships with Steve Madden, Charlotte Tilbury, and other global brands as a result of the platform’s fast and simple integration, patent-pending technology, and an engaging, interactive, and guided shopping experience that was previously only available in physical retail stores.
After a series of integrations, the Buywith platform has generated an 8x increase in eCommerce transactions, a 40 percent increase in session engagement rate, and a 10x ROI on average.
The global pandemic created a momentum for Buywith as retailers and brands were out to find more ways to engage with their users and retain relationships with new castumers.
Other notable investors include Fab Co-Creation Studio Ventures, founded by Odile Roujol, former CEO of Lancome, Alibaba.com’s former President of North America and Europe, John Caplan, and Alibaba.com GM of North America, Kevin Ambrosini, Regah Ventures, Irani CVC, the venture arm of Factory54, the leading luxury retailer in Israel, and True Global, the United Kingdom’s e-commerce and retail fund.
