Whatnot announces a funding round north of $200 million for the second time this year

Whatnot is having quite the year.

In January, the social bidding site announced a $265 million funding round that came with a valuation of nearly $5 billion. Ten months later, Whatnot is showing us that its Series E was just an appetizer: Its Series F is a $225 million round that more than doubles the company’s previous valuation.

DST Global and Alphabet’s CapitalG growth fund co-led the Series F round, which values Whatnot at a whopping $11.5 billion. In an announcement post on LinkedIn, the virtual auction house cheered “the incredible work of our team, the trust of our community, and the energy that sellers bring to Whatnot every day.”

Since Whatnot’s 2019 founding, its valuation has been tied to the overall success of the creator economy. The remarkable number attached to the Series F round is a product of an ecommerce boom that has continued throughout 2025. Social shopping is projected to be a $19 billion business

in the U.S. TikTok’s global Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) was pegged at $33.2 billion in 2024.

Whatnot has placed itself at the center of that world through live-streamed bidding wars hosted by charismatic creators. Through an exciting platform culture and clever marketing campaigns, Whatnot keeps users watching for 80 minutes per day.

In a statement, Whatnot CEO and Co-Founder Grant LaFontaine celebrated his company’s ability to build small businesses around shoppable streams. “We believe there’s a better way to shop online,” LaFontaine said. “It starts with creating a platform where sellers can grow thriving businesses around the things they care about most.”

Whatnot has plans to expand across the United States and Europe, and it now has a longer runway to support its expansion. So long as ecommerce continues to heat up, Whatnot can continue capitalizing on its outsized valuation. And if it can ever bring collections of trading cards, vinyl records, and collectible curios into the Southeast Asian market, it could be looking at an ever bigger score.