VERB Pays $8.3M for LyveCom // More Live Shopping M&A
March 14, 2025 by Chris Erwin
RockWater Roundup
M&A analysis of the creator economy to make you a better operator and investor.
Today we discuss VERB’s acquisition of LyveCom, including the deal details, valuation, strategic rationale, capital flows to livestream and social commerce since 2019, and deal closing requirements.
Let’s break it down…
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–TARGET: LyveCom–
Overview
- AI-driven live video commerce solutions for brands and retailers
- Focus on real-time engagement, shoppable content, and checkout integration
- Founded 2021 by Kevin Gould and Maxwell Drut (CEO)
- 11+ associated members on LinkedIn
- Based in Miami
Business Lines
- Enables brands to host live shopping events on Shopify stores and social media
- Integrates shoppable videos through e-com sites; customers can engage with and purchase products from videos
- Personalized video shopping experiences for brands of all sizes
Company Highlights
- Brands using LyveCom have reported up to a 40% increase in customer engagement, 5x increase in session time, and 10x ROI
- Platform partnerships incl Tapcart and Klaviyo; strong integration capabilities in e-commerce ecosystem
- Clients include G-FUEL and Glamnetic
Capital Markets History
- March 2025: Announced deal to be acquired by MARKET.live for $8.3M, a subsidiary of Verb
–BUYER: Verb Technology Company–
Overview
- Tech-driven sales enablement company
- Parent co of MARKET.live, a livestream social shopping platform
- Founded 2012 by Rory Cutaia
- 55 associated members on LinkedIn
- Content studio and corporate office in Newport, CA
- Based in Lehi, UT
Business Lines
- MARKET.live: Livestream shopping platform. Key revenue lines
- Takes 10-20% of GMV on platform via livestreams, on-demand videos, and online stores
- Produced events like Go Fund Yourself, a TV crowdfunding show similar to Shark Tank
- Drop ship and creator programs (pending)
- TikTok stores and affiliate programs
- Sponsorships and advertising on platform
Company Highlights
- MARKET.live is an official service provider for TikTok Shop and a TikTok Shop Partner
Stock Price
- $4.90 as of 3.13.25
- Down 7.8% MoM
- Down 84% YoY
Financials
(via public filings and stockanalysis.com)
- 2024 FY Revenue of $200K
- 2024 EBITDA of -$10.9M
Valuation
- Mkt Cap: $4.9M
- C&CE: $15.6M
- Total Debt: $300k
- Enterprise Value: -$10.2M
Capital Markets History
- Divested Two Assets in 2023 for $6.5M
- Verb Direct: SaaS platform for direct sales
- Verb Acquisition: Sales SaaS platform for Life Sciences and Sports Teams
- Raised $28.5M through PIPE (per Pitchbook)
- December 2023: $3M
- November 2022: $5M
- April 2022: $11M
- March 2020: $4.4M
- August 2019: $5M
- February 2014: Raised $95K through IPO
–DEAL DETAILS–
Overview
- Announced 3.4.25
- $8.225M Total Consideration
- $3M upfront cash
- $1.125M to SAFE investors
- $100K in Lyvecom loan repayment
- $1M in verb equity
- $3M cash earnout over 24 months for unknown KPIs
- Deal to close in 60 days pending audit
Post Deal Ops
- Maxwell Drut (CEO of LyveCom) to join MARKET.live as CTO
Strategic Rationale
- Integrate LyveCom’s AI tech into MARKET.live to deliver an omnichannel customer shopping experience
- Allow brands and merchants to use video content and personalized shopping across their own websites, mobile apps, and social platforms
- Will allow embeds of livestreams and other shoppable videos on merchant websites
- Will aggregate brand marketer content from TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube into interactive shopping experiences, will minimize new content production
–WHAT ELSE I FIND INTERESTING–
Keeping this short since I’m still catching up post SXSW. Also, VERB is a former RockWater client, so I’m limited in what I can share beyond public information.
- Historical context: livestream commerce companies struggled over past few years. Between 2019-2022, the livestream commerce space was very buzzy – startups raised a lot of capital, and social media and retail incuments launched many livestream and social commerce features. But over the past few years, early stage livestream and social commerce companies from Western markets have shut down or gone through fire sales, and some incuments pulled back on features. Examples of startup challenges include CommentSold buying Popshop Live ($25M raised) in what was likely an asset sale, and integrating its technology into its marketplace. Also, Supergreat ($31M raised) shut down and directed its users, and staff, to WhatNot (our analysis). Key challenges that faced the industry included higher than expected UA costs at scale, low customer adoption behavior relative to Chinese counterparts, low customer willingness to spend, undifferentiated business models, lack of support infrastructure, limited access to brands and product inventory, and strong competition from incumbent social platforms like Meta, Google, and TikTok. RockWater covered a lot of this here, with much more on our blog if you search livestream shopping.
- 2025 has seen an uptick in capital flows to social commerce businesses. The top tier of companies in the social commerce space are outperforming in driving GMV, and are raising lots of funding to continue driving growth. In Jan 2025, we saw two landmark fundraises for scaled social commerce businesses; Whatnot raised $265M at a $5B valuation (our analysis here), and ShopMy raised $78M at a $410M valuation (our analysis here). And then also in January 2025, there was the $250M sale of affiliate commerce biz Mavely to Later (our analysis).
- VERB is doubling down on social commerce. The LyveCom acquisition comes after the divestment of two other VERB businesses; a direct sales platform and a SaaS sales platform. VERB will now put all of its efforts into its MARKET.live platform, a strong bet on the future of the live and social commerce market.
- Deal closing is contingent upon an audit. Since Verb is public and the transaction is deemed material, LyveCom must complete an audit of its 2023 and 2024 financials by the end of March. Otherwise, Verb can exit the deal and Lyvecom will need to reimburse audit fees incurred by VERB. Given these audit fees can range between $100-200K, that would be a hefty penalty for LyveCom if the audit isn’t approved.
I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for creator economy and digital agencies. From buy / sell-side M&A and fundraising, to consumer research and go-to-market planning.
DM me on LinkedIn or email me chris @ wearerockwater dot com
