Whatnot, the largest independent live shopping platform in the US, announced that it has raised $260 million in a Series D funding round co-led by DST Global and returning investor CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund. The latest fundraise brings the company’s valuation to $3.7B, a 2.5x increase since its $1.5 billion valuation in September, 2021. Other participating investors include BOND and returning investors Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and YC Continuity. The fresh capital will facilitate continued investment in the in-app live & social commerce marketplace and enable the company to launch additional categories for collectors and enthusiasts of all kinds.
Also Read: Tailwind Launches Expanded Email Marketing Capabilities in Continued Evolution
“We are excited to partner with Grant Lafontaine and the Whatnot team as they build the leading social shopping platform globally”
For two years in a row, Whatnot has been the fastest growing independent marketplace in the US. Last year, the company grew sales over 20 times year-over-year and more than tripled its monthly sales so far in 2022. Whatnot is the US leader in social shopping, which is a $600B market in China and doubling annually. Whatnot provides live shopping experiences for popular collectibles categories such as sneakers, trading cards, sports cards and memorabilia, rare toys, and more. The company plans to double down on collectible categories, expanding into diecast cars, stamps, and action figures, and will continue expanding into multiple new categories.
“This last year has been one of fast-paced growth largely attributed to the powerful community our platform is fostering,” said CEO and Co-founder Grant Lafontaine. “It’s been incredible to see how our app cultivates connections between people with shared hobbies, keeping them tuned in to our entertaining live streams even if they aren’t buying and providing a hub for anyone to browse and discover new interests. Building on this momentum, we have our sights set on expanding into more categories and creating new experiences for people with all types of passions and hobbies.”
To meet soaring growth, Whatnot is continuing to hire across sales, marketing and engineering. Most recently, Whatnot recruited Xinan Wu, previously at Citadel Securities, as Head of Infrastructure and Agnieszka Podsiadło, previously at Lyft, as Head of Core Product Engineering. Both will focus on scaling the engineering department and on enhancing the platform experience as growth from buyers and sellers increases.
“Whatnot is one of the fastest growing marketplaces we’ve ever seen. Whatnot’s unique approach to social commerce combines social-media-like-engagement with best-in-class ecommerce commercialization, creating a powerful combination for buyers and sellers,” said Laela Sturdy, General Partner at CapitalG, who joined the Whatnot board as part of this investment. “In the 10 months since we co-led the Series C, Whatnot has successfully launched and scaled dozens of new categories, proving out the horizontal power of the platform. We’re thrilled to double down on Whatnot by co-leading the Series D.”