Whatnot acquires Shaped to power real-time live shopping recommendations

Whatnot, the livestream shopping app that surpassed 1 billion orders, announced Wednesday it acquired Shaped, a machine learning company focused on real-time recommendation and search systems. The acquisition is meant to strengthen Whatnot's personalization as it expands across new categories (over 35 added last year, 45+ in first half of 2026). Unlike traditional e-commerce, Whatnot's inventory changes by the second as live auctions start and end continuously. Shaped's technology integrates existing customer data with large language models and machine learning to deliver personalized search and discovery. The company previously served clients like Outdoorsy and QVC.

Whatnot says its systems already process over 500,000 hours of live video and millions of real-time interactions each week, with recommendation latency reduced from a day to minutes over six years. Shaped's tech should push recommendations even closer to real time. As part of the deal, Shaped founder and CEO Tullie Murrell (ex-Meta) will lead a new Applied AI Research group, joined by nearly a dozen engineers. The acquisition arrives amid rapid growth: Whatnot raised $225M in Series F funding, hit an $11B valuation, and added 20 million buyers in the past year. The move also mirrors broader industry trends as eBay and Poshmark race to integrate AI into their platforms.