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Whatnot Valued at $20 Billion After New Funding

Wall Street Journal US Business •
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Fast-growing shopping app Whatnot is now valued at $20 billion, nearly double the $11.5 billion valuation it hit in October, after a new round of funding from investors eager to bet on its live-shopping format. The company raised $545 million in the new fundraising round, according to a company statement. Whatnot has now raised roughly $1.5 billion since its founding in 2019.

The Los Angeles-based company runs a marketplace where sellers host live video auctions, hawking sports cards, clothes, slime and plants to viewers who bid in real time. Whatnot takes a cut of each sale. Co-founders Grant La Fontaine and Logan Head started the business in 2019 and soon began selling Funko Pop figurines on their own stream.

At $20 billion, the upstart app now has a higher valuation than some long-established retailers. The market capitalizations of Best Buy, Lululemon and Wayfair are all below that threshold. Investors including Iconiq, Lightspeed and Avra led the most recent round of funding, the company said.