Live commerce platform Whatnot has closed a $545 million Series G funding round that values the company at $20 billion, nearly double the $11.5 billion valuation it reached in its October 2025 Series F, according to reports from PYMNTS, Pulse2 and Under30CEO covering the August 7, 2026 announcement.

The round was led by ICONIQ, Lightspeed and Avra, with returning investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, Bond, DST Global, Greycroft and Alphabet’s CapitalG, plus new backers Kleiner Perkins, Wellington Management and Standard Capital, the investment firm founded by former Y Combinator partner Dalton Caldwell, Pulse2 reported.

Whatnot described the raise as the largest funding round to date in the live shopping sector. The company says the capital will go toward helping sellers grow, attracting more buyers, expanding into additional categories and markets, strengthening trust and safety, and developing new technology including AI-assisted tools for sellers.

The financing follows a period of rapid growth. Whatnot’s gross merchandise volume passed the $8 billion it generated in all of 2025 during the first half of 2026 alone, according to the company’s announcement. The number of buyers using the platform has more than doubled over the past year, the number of sellers surpassing $1 million in lifetime sales has more than doubled, and roughly 650,000 people now join the platform every week.

For creators, the raise is a signal that live selling is maturing from a niche format into a mainstream commerce channel with institutional backing. Whatnot’s model lets individual sellers run real-time livestream auctions for trading cards, sneakers, comics, vintage fashion and collectibles, and the company says many sellers have turned side businesses and resale operations into full-time companies with employees and dedicated facilities.

The takeaway for creators: live selling rewards hosts who can hold an audience’s attention in real time, and the tools keep improving. If you already sell products or collectibles, testing a weekly live auction or live sale on a platform like Whatnot is a low-cost way to find out whether your audience buys in the moment.