Reflecting On Our Whatnot Investment Thesis
A little over a year ago, I spoke with Jason Del Rey for his Fortune feature on Whatnot, which he described as the “$5 billion shopping app you’ve never heard of.” Today, Whatnot announced a $545 million Series G at a $20 billion valuation.
This felt like the natural opportunity to revisit the investment thesis we wrote in January 2025 when we co-led Whatnot’s Series E.
Live commerce has reached an inflection point
Live commerce is no longer a niche channel. It’s how businesses of all sizes engage and connect with buyers and how consumers discover products and brands in meaningful and fun ways.
Halfway through 2026, the company had already surpassed its total 2025 GMV, its buyer base had more than doubled over the prior year, and more than 650,000 people were joining the platform every week.
Whatnot remains one of the fastest-growing marketplaces. The Company has been recognized as one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies, is ranked No. 8 on CNBC’s 2026 Disruptor 50, and was named No. 1 on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Startup Employers. It also consistently ranks among the top shopping apps in Apple’s App store.
The growing seller ecosystem
One of my favorite moments this year was attending Whatnot’s first Seller Summit in Austin.
Over the course of the weekend, I met entrepreneurs selling books, luxury goods, LEGOs, golf apparel, women’s apparel, sports cards, athleisure, French antiques, American antiques, and much more. Some were solo entrepreneurs, while others had built sizable businesses and teams. One of the things that stood out to me at the Seller Summit was the range of businesses represented.
As live commerce has grown, so has the breadth of sellers on Whatnot, from small businesses to retailers and global brands. Whatnot sellers generated more than $8 billion in live sales last year. One in eight now builds a full-time business on the platform, and the number of sellers surpassing $1 million in lifetime sales has more than doubled over the past year.
Whatnot spans hundreds of categories, including emerging verticals like specialty food, golf, and squishies! One example in the fashion category is Invicta Stores, the official retail outlet for Invicta Watch Group, which has grown from a single Whatnot account to four dedicated live-selling channels broadcasting more than 50 hours each day while expanding into new product categories.
Commitment to being world class at leveraging AI
At the time of our original investment thesis, we were excited to see Whatnot bring the power of AI and its proprietary data set to create the best live shopping experience.
Whatnot’s approach has been to use AI where it removes friction, and leave the human parts human. They are building smarter discovery for buyers and tools that help sellers spend less time on logistics, so they can focus on what only people can do: showing up live, answering questions, and building real communities around what they sell.
Whatnot recently welcomed the Shaped team, a machine learning company specializing in recommendation systems, search, and personalization, to deepen its investment in AI-powered discovery.
Whatnot is investing in AI-powered tools that help sellers reach more customers, make better decisions, and spend less time on administrative work. This includes smarter listings, deeper business insights, and integrations that simplify selling on Whatnot. At the same time, Whatnot will continue to strengthen the technology and safeguards that make Whatnot the most trusted marketplace for buyers and sellers.
Great founders keep expanding their vision
Last November, I interviewed Grant at Greycroft’s Annual General Meeting in San Francisco. One part of our conversation has stayed with me because it captured the ambition behind this team’s long-term vision.
“We think it’s going to be across every country, we think it’s going to be across every category, and we want to be the biggest, the best.” – Grant LaFontaine, CEO & Co-Founder, Whatnot
A year and a half ago we wrote: “The rise of live shopping in Asia, where platforms like Douyin and Taobao have captured significant market share from physical retail and generated hundreds of billions in GMV, highlights the scale of this opportunity. Whatnot is uniquely positioned to bring this transformation to the West.” Today, Whatnot is the largest live shopping platform in the West.
Congratulations to Grant, Logan, and the entire Whatnot team on this milestone. We couldn’t be more excited to continue to support this one-of-a-kind team as they reimagine the future of commerce.
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