Live-Commerce Platform Whatnot Raises $545M Series G at $20B Valuation

Live shopping has become a mainstream way to buy in the U.S. — sellers go live to show products, and viewers buy on the spot. What was once a concept you had to explain is now something shoppers simply expect, and Whatnot sits at the center of that shift.

Whatnot is a live-shopping marketplace where sellers stream to sell across categories from collectibles and trading cards to fashion and electronics. Its model is built around small businesses and resellers who go live, sell what they know, and grow a community — and the company has long framed its identity around the idea that “Whatnot has always been built by small businesses.”

Founder and CEO Grant LaFontaine said the round “allows us to build better tools, bring AI to more parts of the selling experience, help sellers reach more buyers, expand into new markets, and continue building the world’s biggest and most trusted marketplace.”

Whatnot announced $545 million in Series G funding — the largest raise in live shopping to date. The round was led by ICONIQ, Lightspeed, and Avra, with Kleiner Perkins and Wellington Management joining as new investors and Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, and CapitalG also participating. Robinhood’s venture fund is reported to have invested about $30 million in preferred stock.

The round values Whatnot at $20 billion — nearly double the $11.5 billion valuation it reached just nine months ago, in an October 2025 Series F that raised $225 million.

Growth backed by numbers, with AI next

The jump in valuation rests on hard numbers. Whatnot says that in the first half of this year alone it has already surpassed the $8 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) it did in all of 2025, with more than 650,000 new people joining every week. Over the past year, the number of sellers who have crossed $1 million in lifetime sales has more than doubled, and the share earning a full-time living on the platform has grown 25%.

Whatnot will direct the capital toward its sellers: marketing that introduces live shopping to first-time buyers, investments in trust to turn first purchases into repeat ones, new categories and markets, and AI-assisted tools that handle the busywork. In an AI-obsessed Silicon Valley, a “people selling to people” live-commerce model earning a $20 billion valuation stands out.

Competition is intensifying, with TikTok Shop scaling shopping fused into short-form video and Amazon and YouTube adding live-shopping features — but Whatnot has staked out the category with community-driven, real-time auctions and sales.