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Live streaming in the United States has a ways to go to keep up with China’s growing $600 billion industry, but Whatnot’s new $260 million Series D round shows that consumers are embracing this way of shopping and shopping.
The new investment was co-led by DST Global and return investor Capital G, and more than doubled the value of the live trading platform to $3.7 billion, up from its $1.5 billion valuation in September 2021, which paid Watt Note $150 million. BOND and returning investors Andreessen Horowitz and YC Continuity participated in the round.
Whatnot intends to use the capital infusion to continue growing its in-app live and social commerce marketplace and expand additional categories for collectors, including die-cast cars, stamps and action figures.
Grant LaFontaine and Logan Head founded the company in 2019 as a place to share their passion for buying and selling things like rare Pokemon cards and Funko Pops.
It took an early approach to the popular “card vacation” concept, where users would buy unopened boxes of Pokemon or sports cards and scan them to see others describe the contents live. That expanded into other collectibles, including sneakers, trading cards, sports memorabilia and rare toys.
The growing demand not only raised three rounds of capital in 2021, but also led to year-over-year sales growth of more than 20 times in 2021, with monthly sales more than tripling by 2022, the company said.
“This past year has been one of the fastest growing platforms for the dynamic community we’ve been growing,” CEO LaFontaine said in a statement. Building on this progress, we set our sights on expanding into multiple categories and creating new experiences for people with all kinds of interests and hobbies.
Live streaming marketing is currently only an $11 billion business in the United States, but is set to reach $35 billion in sales by 2024. With companies like Whatnot growing rapidly, investors are looking for other players and have invested hundreds in the past year. Millions of dollars in companies like Popshop Live, Upmesh, buywith, Firework and Drip.
Meanwhile, to complement some of the growth and offer new features, Whatnot Get Pastel Labs, a company that builds products that, for example, capture user video credentials.
The company recently made additional hires in sales, marketing and engineering to improve the buying and selling experience, including Xinan Wu, head of infrastructure at Citadel Securities and previously head of product engineering with Lyft.
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