Whatnot Raises $225 Million for Enthusiast Community-Focused Live Shopping Platform

Whatnot raised $225 million in a Series F funding round to continue growing its live shopping platform that focuses on enthusiast communities and operates across the United States, United Kingdom and Europe.

The round valued Whatnot at $11.5 billion, the company said in a Tuesday (Oct. 28) post on LinkedIn.

“We started with a simple idea: shopping should be more personal, more connected and more human,” Whatnot said in its post. “That vision has now powered more than $6 billion in live sales this year alone, and we’re just getting started.”

The company added: “We’re building Whatnot to help small business owners and entrepreneurs grow what they love into something bigger.”

Whatnot’s livestream shopping platform offers auctions, flash sales and live show giveaways, according to the company’s website. Its sellers offer products in more than 250 categories, including fashion, coins, sports and Pokémon cards, and sneakers.

The company’s latest funding round was co-led by DST Global and CapitalG, according to its post. CapitalG is Alphabet’s independent growth fund.

CapitalG said in a Tuesday post on LinkedIn that this is the third Whatnot funding round that it has co-led, with the others being a Series C in 2021 and a Series D in 2022.

The company said in the post that it has “more conviction than ever in Whatnot’s trajectory towards building one of the world’s iconic marketplaces.”

Whatnot’s focus on enthusiast communities has created a great marketplace for collectors and hobbyists as well as a livelihood for “hundreds of thousands” of small business owners, CapitalG said in its post.

“The transition to e-commerce made shopping efficient but less personal and significantly less fun,” the company said. “Whatnot has brought the joy of the hunt online, blending storefront, show and community hangout into one platform.”

PYMNTS reported in January that a convergence of physical stores and digital innovations like live shopping a reshaping the future of retail.

Whatnot raised $265 million in a Series E funding round in January. That round valued the live shopping marketplace at $4.97 billion.

The company’s co-founder and CEO, Grant LaFontaine, said at the time that Whatnot was working to promote the mainstreaming of livestream selling.

“We believe there’s a better way to shop online, and it starts with creating a platform where sellers can grow thriving businesses around the things they care about most,” LaFontaine said. “We’ve proven this leads to the happiest experience for consumers and sellers alike.”