TikTok Shop rival raises funds at US$5 billion valuation
Last year, more than US$3 billion worth of goods were sold on Whatnot, including sneakers, collectibles, vinyl records and handbags
Whatnot, a live streaming shopping platform that competes with TikTok Shop, raised US$265 million at a valuation of US$4.97 billion in a funding round led by Greycroft Partners, DST Global and Avra.
The start-up, which was founded in 2019, has emerged as an alternative to TikTok’s shopping features. Last year, more than US$3 billion worth of goods were sold on Whatnot, including sneakers, collectibles, vinyl records and handbags.
“The opportunity for what live and social commerce can do for sellers and sellers’ businesses is pretty tremendous,” Whatnot co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Grant LaFontaine said in an interview. “It’s going to be one of those things that changes every kind of category and part of retail.”
Whatnot, based in Los Angeles, has thousands of sellers across eight countries including the US, Canada, France and Germany. Over 175,000 hours of live-streams are hosted on the platform each week, according to the company.
“It is Instagram meets eBay,” said Val Zapata, a Whatnot seller and founder of the Shoe Game, which sold over US$6 million worth of sneakers on the site last year. “You have a marketplace but you have to entertain these people.”
The ability to turn shopping into entertainment has made live selling successful in parts of Asia-Pacific, where TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is based. TikTok Shop has since emerged as a key part of that company’s business in the US, and executives last year planned to sell more than US$17 billion worth of goods through the platform.
Whatnot’s funding round coincides with a looming US ban on TikTok, potentially sending some of its live sellers to competitors. ByteDance faces a January 19 deadline to sell TikTok in the US though incoming President Donald Trump could intervene.
