Whatnot

In 2019, two product managers, Grant LaFontaine and Logan Head, founded Whatnot. LaFontaine had worked at Facebook and Google and had sold collectibles and sneakers online since childhood; Head had once run a medical marijuana dispensary and, immediately before Whatnot, was a senior product manager at GOAT, the sneaker and apparel resale app. Whatnot was initially designed as a high-end version of Craigslist but quickly pivoted to collectibles, dealing exclusively in Funko Pop figures for the first year; the company’s name is a riff on the idea that all sorts of goods can be sold on the platform.⁠[1][1][1][1]

In early 2020, Whatnot took part in Y Combinator’s winter batch. After the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, the company struggled to raise money and for a time relocated from Los Angeles to Phoenix, where it was run out of a garage. The same year, Whatnot began experimenting with livestreaming: sellers, or streamers they pay to host, present products and answer viewers’ questions during livestreams, and the vast majority of the platform’s sales have since taken place via livestreams.⁠[2][3][3][3][3][1][1]

In 2021, Whatnot closed a $150 million Series C round led by Alphabet’s CapitalG at a $1.5 billion valuation; at the time, the platform covered only five collectibles categories and operated only in the U.S.⁠[4][4][4]

In February 2022, Whatnot announced the all-stock acquisition of Pastel Labs, whose founder Jeff Chang, previously the technical lead for Pinterest’s growth team, became Whatnot’s head of growth; LaFontaine put the deal in the $5 million to $10 million range. Whatnot also hired Ludo Antonov, former head of growth and product engineering at Lyft, as vice president of engineering. The company then had 120 employees and had grown 60-fold over the past year, and its categories had expanded from sports and game cards, toys, and comics to sneakers, vintage fashion, and vinyl records.⁠[3][3][3][3][3][3][3]

In October 2024, Whatnot announced that its annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) from livestream sales had surpassed $2 billion and launched Rewards Club: sellers can customize rewards across five membership levels from Bronze to Diamond, and buyers who complete tasks such as making purchases or watching live shows can earn benefits including coupons, free shipping, and exclusive shows. The platform is known for its “sudden death” auctions, in which the last bidder wins the item.⁠[5][5][5][5][5]

On January 8, 2025, Whatnot announced a $265 million Series E round at a $4.97 billion valuation, co-led by Avra, DST Global, and Greycroft, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, CapitalG, BOND, Durable Capital Partners, and Y Combinator, bringing its total funding to approximately $746 million. The company also announced its first tender offer, planning to buy back up to $72 million worth of shares from its 600 full-time employees, and disclosed that its annual livestream GMV had surpassed $3 billion. At the time, the platform was available in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Belgium, and planned to enter Australia and more European markets.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

As of June 2025, Whatnot had about 750 employees and operated in nine countries in North America and Europe, plus Australia. Sellers on the platform sold a combined $3 billion in goods in 2024, mainly collectibles such as sports cards, with women’s fashion and sneakers growing quickly and categories extending to luxury bags and electronics; the company was not yet profitable and forecast GMV of more than $6 billion in 2025, about double its 2024 figure.⁠[1][1][1][1]

Whatnot began selling shelf-stable food such as candy and snacks in summer 2025 and in early 2026 launched a fresh food category including fish fillets and rib-eye steaks. From July 2025 to January 2026, the food category grew 30% month over month, and its number of transactions increased 2.5-fold.⁠[7][7][7][7]

In October 2025, Whatnot raised a $225 million Series F round, more than doubling its valuation to $11.5 billion in less than 10 months. The round was co-led by DST Global and CapitalG, with new investors including Sequoia Capital and Alkeon Capital and returning backers including Greycroft, Andreessen Horowitz, Avra, and Bond, bringing total funding to about $968 million; the company disclosed that more than $6 billion worth of goods had been sold on the platform so far in 2025, more than twice its total for all of 2024.⁠[4][8][8][8][8]

In March 2026, attorney Paul Lesko announced that he had filed 15 arbitrations against Whatnot on behalf of clients, alleging that the platform’s randomized card breaks and repackaged products amounted to unregulated gambling without consumer protection safeguards, and alleging that the platform allowed some sellers to engage in unfair practices such as shill bidding. Whatnot said in a statement that it absolutely rejected these claims, that gambling is not allowed on the platform and the policy is strictly enforced, and that card breaks are a long-standing format in collecting.⁠[9][9][9][9][9][9][9]

In August 2026, Whatnot announced a $545 million Series G round at a $20 billion valuation, nearly double its $11.5 billion valuation of October 2025. The round was led by ICONIQ, Lightspeed, and Avra, with new investors including Kleiner Perkins, Wellington Management, and Standard Capital, and returning investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Bond, DST Global, Greycroft, Y Combinator, and CapitalG. Whatnot had by then raised about $1.5 billion since its founding in 2019, and the platform had surpassed one billion orders. LaFontaine said he would prefer to stay private as long as possible but would be prepared to go public.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4]

In October 2026, Whatnot and Mass Appeal announced the Whatnot Liveplex at New York Comic Con, a roughly 5,000-square-foot space with a shopping mall-inspired layout billed as the “Home of Hip-Hop Collectibles,” hosting live shopping events, auctions, and artist appearances, all livestreamed on the platform.⁠[10][10][10]

Whatnot: Official website: https://www.whatnot.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

X: Public account: https://x.com/whatnot (opens in a new window)⁠[2]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/whatnot-inc/ (opens in a new window)⁠[2]