Whatnot in talks to nearly double valuation to $20B
What's the deal? Whatnot, the livestream-shopping platform where hosts sell sneakers, trading cards, and vinyl to live audiences, is in talks to raise at a valuation of about $20 billion. That would nearly double the $11.5 billion the company was worth as recently as late 2024.
Why now? The startup is raising again barely a year after its $11.5 billion round, as live commerce catches on in the West. A near-doubling in under a year makes Whatnot one of the fastest-appreciating consumer startups, at a time when venture money has flowed overwhelmingly toward artificial intelligence rather than shopping apps.
How it works: Whatnot runs live video auctions across categories from fashion to collectables, taking a commission on each transaction. A host holds up an item, buyers bid or tap to purchase in real time, and the urgency of a live sale does work a static product page never could.
By the numbers: The company says it handled about $8 billion in livestream sales over the past year across North America and Europe. Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Lightspeed, and Google's CapitalG have all backed Whatnot.
What's the endgame? Whatnot has grown by leaning into niche communities of collectors and resellers, rather than trying to be a general store. This month it acquired ShapedDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a startup that builds real-time recommendation systems, to point viewers toward the streams and items most likely to make them spend. A larger raise would fund that engine, European expansion, and the fight for hosts and buyers.
What could go wrong? Livestream shopping has been enormous in China for years, but the format is only newly working in the West. TikTokDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Instagram, and Amazon have all pushed into live and social shopping, leaving Whatnot's independence both an advantage and a vulnerability against far larger rivals.
The signal: The valuation is a talk rather than a term sheet, and startup valuations can move before they are signed. Still, that top-tier investors are chasing a shopping app, not an AI model, suggests live commerce has finally crossed over.
Read more: Business Insider, The Next Web
