Whatnot acquires AI startup Shaped to power real-time live shopping recommendations

Livestream shopping app Whatnot announced Wednesday that it has acquired Shaped, a machine learning company specializing in real-time recommendation and search systems, to strengthen its discovery and personalization capabilities as the platform expands across new product categories and millions of buyers.

Why the acquisition matters for live commerce

Unlike traditional e-commerce platforms where product catalogs remain relatively stable, Whatnot’s marketplace is constantly evolving. Live auctions can end within minutes or last for hours, creating what the company describes as a uniquely hard recommendation problem. Inventory changes by the second, shows start and end continuously, and buyer intent shifts throughout a show. The acquisition is meant to help Whatnot solve one of live commerce’s biggest challenges: helping shoppers find the right products while inventory, auctions, and buyer demand change in real time.

What Shaped brings to Whatnot

Shaped developed technology that combines existing customer data with large language models and machine learning to deliver highly personalized search and discovery experiences. Its customer roster included companies such as Outdoorsy and QVC. As part of the acquisition, Shaped founder and CEO Tullie Murrell, along with nearly a dozen engineers and AI researchers, will join Whatnot. Murrell will lead the company’s newly formed Applied AI Research group. Notably, Murrell worked at Meta before launching Shaped.

How the technology improves recommendations

Emmanuel Fuentes, Vice President of Data and AI at Whatnot, told Bitcoin World that by combining Shaped’s technology with Whatnot’s existing systems, the company can make recommendations faster, more responsive, and more personalized. Fuentes said the company has spent the last six years improving the speed of its recommendation engine, reducing recommendation latency from roughly a day to just minutes. Integrating Shaped’s technology is expected to push those recommendations even closer to real time. The company says its systems process more than 500,000 hours of live video and millions of real-time interactions every week, using that data to continuously improve recommendations.

Whatnot’s rapid growth and market expansion

Launched in 2019, Whatnot recently revealed that sellers have surpassed one billion orders. Earlier this year, the company raised $225 million in Series F funding, giving it a valuation of more than $11 billion after adding 20 million buyers over the past year. Whatnot has also significantly broadened its marketplace, launching more than 35 new categories last year—including art, golf, and vinyl—and more than 45 additional categories during the first half of 2025, with new subcategories continuing to roll out each month. The move comes as resale giants such as eBay and Poshmark race to integrate AI throughout their platforms.

Conclusion

The acquisition of Shaped signals Whatnot’s commitment to solving the real-time discovery challenge in live commerce, a sector that demands rapid adaptation to changing inventory and buyer behavior. With Shaped’s technology and talent, Whatnot aims to deliver more responsive personalization as it continues to scale across new categories and a growing user base.

FAQs

Q1: What does Shaped do?
Shaped is a machine learning company that builds real-time recommendation and search systems using large language models and customer data to deliver personalized discovery experiences.

Q2: How will the acquisition affect Whatnot users?
Users can expect faster, more personalized product recommendations during live streams, helping them find relevant items as inventory and auctions change in real time.

Q3: Who is joining Whatnot as part of the deal?
Shaped founder and CEO Tullie Murrell, along with nearly a dozen engineers and AI researchers, will join Whatnot. Murrell will lead the company’s new Applied AI Research group.