Shares in live commerce company Huddled Group (AIM:HUD) have gained 13.8% to 0.825p after the firm announced it has signed binding heads of terms to acquire AEWW Ltd, its joint-venture partner on the Whatnot platform, subject to customary due diligence and clearances.
Peeko brands on Whatnot
As announced in August, Huddled entered into a joint venture with AEWW to operate live commerce channels on the leading live commerce platform Whatnot. Strong progress is said to have been made since launch, with over 120,000 followers across the firm’s Whatnot accounts to date.
Peeko Gadgets, the primary focus of the joint venture to date, has been consistently ranked No1 best-seller in the Everyday Electronics category and has been experiencing strong week-on-week growth in both followers and sales. Weekly revenue from Peeko Gadgets is said to have grown more than 2.5 times since Huddled entered into the joint venture in August, with almost 75,000 users following the account. Sister account Peeko Blinders, which specialises in the fast sale of surplus stock, has reached almost 24,000 followers and is said to have achieved encouraging sales. Broadcasting hours for this channel will be extended on Whatnot and the brand launched on eBay in the coming weeks.
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Reasons for the deal
The acquisition is being made as Huddled sees a clear opportunity to extend the gadgets offering across other online channels, including TikTok, eBay Live and Peeko’s own website. This initiative is expected to benefit from the AEWW team’s gadget expertise to be deployed beyond the scope of the original joint venture, which focused solely on Whatnot.
Huddled also intends to further develop its other Whatnot channels to replicate the success of Peeko Gadgets. This will require additional resources to be allocated to Whatnot, and full ownership of AEWW ensures that the benefit of that investment accrues entirely to Huddled shareholders.
Jason and Regan McNeill, the co-founders of AEWW, will join Huddled as employees to further boost its live commerce capabilities and help lead its expansion plans.
Consideration for the deal is £290,000, to be satisfied by the issue of 38,666,667 new Huddled shares at a price of 0.75p each. These will be subject to a twelve-month lock-in followed by a twelve-month orderly market agreement.
Huddled Group share price chart year to date
The business
Away from live commerce, Huddled also runs an e-commerce business which, following the merger of its Discount Dragon and Boop Beauty brands in April this year, operates a digital surplus superstore called Peeko at peeko.co.uk. The company specialises in rescuing surplus items and redistributing them at low prices – think 96 Cadbury crème eggs for twenty quid. The firm has spent the past year improving unit economics, establishing next-day delivery as standard on orders made by 11pm, and earning an 'Excellent' Trustpilot rating across a combined total of over 30,000 reviews. Huddled also runs the Nutricircle health and wellness brand at nutricircle.co.uk.
Results for the six months to 30th June 2026, released at the end of September, reported revenue of £7.14 million, down from £9.48 million in the same period in 2025. However, gross profit increased by 118% to £0.42 million due to a focus on fewer, more profitable orders. The adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed to £1.24 million from £1.47 million in H1 2025. At the time, and only a few weeks after launch, a weekly revenue run rate of c.£100k was reported for live commerce.
Comment
In the past few weeks Huddled has decided to change its focus from being a circular-economy e-commerce group to a live commerce business, an area of the market where it believes there is significant growth potential.
According to a recent report from Grand View Research¹, the global live commerce market size was estimated at $172.9 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach c.$2.55 trillion by 2033, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41% from 2026 to 2033. The company quotes a UK forecast of the market reaching £7 billion in revenues by 2028, and thinks it can potentially dominate with its “Powered by Peeko” next day delivery solution.
Huddled states that market leader Whatnot reported over 300% growth in new buyers in 2025, and global sales over $8 billion in the first half of 2026. TikTok reported 55% year-on-year growth in the UK for Live shopping from 2025 to 2026, with over 6,000 shopping sessions a day. eBay have also now moved into live commerce.
Excellent progress has already been made, but investors will be looking for further progress towards profitability. Huddled raised £1.51 million in summer this year, with the directors saying that they believe that the funds raised are sufficient to enable the company to become operationally cash flow positive.
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Sources
¹https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/live-commerce-market-report
Disclosures
Huddled Group is not a corporate client of Optimo Research Ltd.
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