Livestreaming platform Firework has secured $150 million in Series B financing led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, bringing its total funding to-date to more than $235 million.
Brands, retailers and marketplaces are increasingly using shoppable live-video events to promote products and raise brand awareness, with Coresight Research projecting that livestreaming in the U.S. market will more than triple by 2024 to reach $35 billion. In China, livestream commerce is already big business, generating more than $300 billion in sales in 2021 and representing 12% of ecommerce sales. Meanwhile, in North America, livestreaming represents just 0.1% of all online sales, representing a huge opportunity for growth.
Firework already counts among its clients Albertsons Companies, The Fresh Market, Omnicom Media Group and Unilever. With the new funding the company plans to accelerate the growth of its decentralized live commerce infrastructure with platform enhancements and by beefing up its engineering, product and marketing teams. As part of the transaction Linda Yu, Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, has joined Firework’s Board of Directors.
“With this investment, our growth engine is firing on all cylinders,” said Firework Co-Founder and CEO Vincent Yang in a statement. “Our core technology and business model have already been proven in the market many times over, and with this capital to realize our vision, Firework can now focus most of our efforts on evolution and growth, in all its forms — growing our team, growing our user base and growing our technology.”
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