Key Takeaways

  • Whatnot has acquired Shaped, a machine learning firm.
  • The acquisition aims to enhance real-time recommendations for live shopping.
  • Shaped’s technology will improve personalization and speed of recommendations.
  • Whatnot continues to expand its marketplace with new product categories.

Acquisition Overview

Whatnot, a livestream shopping platform, announced its acquisition of Shaped, a company specializing in machine learning for real-time recommendations and search systems. This move is intended to bolster Whatnot’s capabilities in product discovery and personalization as it grows across various product categories and attracts millions of buyers.

Addressing Live Commerce Challenges

The integration of Shaped’s technology is part of Whatnot’s ongoing investment in artificial intelligence, aimed at tackling a significant issue in live commerce: guiding shoppers to the right products as inventory and buyer demand fluctuate in real time. Unlike traditional e-commerce platforms with stable product catalogs, Whatnot’s marketplace is dynamic, with live auctions that can conclude in minutes or extend for hours.

Enhancing Recommendation Systems

Emmanuel Fuentes, Whatnot’s VP of Data and AI, stated that combining Shaped’s technology with Whatnot’s systems will enable faster, more responsive, and personalized recommendations. He noted that the speed of recommendations is critical in live commerce, where inventory can change rapidly and buyer intent shifts throughout a show.

Whatnot has spent the last six years refining its recommendation engine, reducing latency from about a day to mere minutes. The addition of Shaped’s technology is expected to bring recommendations even closer to real time. The platform currently processes over 500,000 hours of live video and millions of interactions weekly, using this data to enhance its recommendation capabilities.

Shaped’s Background and Team Integration

Shaped was founded to assist businesses in developing AI-driven recommendation systems. The company has created technology that merges customer data with large language models and machine learning to provide personalized search and discovery experiences. Its clientele includes notable companies like Outdoorsy and QVC.

As part of the acquisition, Shaped’s founder and CEO, Tullie Murrell, along with a team of engineers and AI researchers, will join Whatnot. Murrell will head the newly established Applied AI Research group at Whatnot. Previously, Murrell worked at Meta before founding Shaped.

Whatnot’s Growth and Marketplace Expansion

This acquisition comes during a period of significant growth for Whatnot. Since its launch in 2019, the platform has surpassed 1 billion orders. Last year, Whatnot secured $225 million in Series F funding, resulting in a valuation exceeding $11 billion, bolstered by the addition of 20 million buyers in the past year.

Whatnot has also expanded its marketplace significantly, introducing over 35 new categories last year, including art, golf, and vinyl, and adding more than 45 additional categories in the first half of 2026, with new subcategories being rolled out monthly.

Industry Context

The acquisition aligns with a broader trend as major resale platforms like eBay and Poshmark are also integrating AI into their operations.