All the fundraising deals in the live shopping market (from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026)
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In our live shopping market deck, you will find everything you need to understand the market
Between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026, the live shopping market produced 5 disclosed funding events worth a combined $526.1 million.
Almost all of that capital went to a single company: Whatnot, a U.S.-based live shopping marketplace that raised two mega-rounds in just 10 months.
Outside of Whatnot, only three other players crossed the $500k threshold, and they did so with much smaller checks and more creative financing formats.
And if you want to better understand this new industry, you can download our pitch covering the live shopping market.
Insights
- Whatnot alone captured 93.1% of all disclosed live shopping market funding between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026, raising $490M across two rounds while every other player combined raised just $36.1M.
- The live shopping market saw zero qualifying disclosed funding events in both Q3 2025 and Q1 2026, which shows capital flows in this space are episodic rather than continuous.
- Consumer live shopping marketplaces attracted roughly 98% of all disclosed capital, while B2B live commerce infrastructure players (BeLive and Channelize.io) together raised only $11.1M.
- Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is the most active named investor in the live shopping market, appearing in 3 deals across Whatnot and Palmstreet, reflecting high conviction in the category's long-term potential.
- Niche community live shopping platforms like Palmstreet, focused on hobbyists and collectors, represent the only funded alternative to Whatnot's horizontal marketplace model, suggesting investors still believe vertical live commerce has legs.
- BeLive Holdings chose a Nasdaq IPO to raise $9.8M rather than a private VC round, a sign that B2B live commerce infrastructure companies may find traditional venture funding harder to access at this stage.
- Channelize.io raised its $1.3M by running a public live fundraising campaign using its own product, which doubles as proof-of-concept marketing and is a creative format rarely seen in B2B SaaS fundraising.
- The average live shopping funding deal in Q2 2025 was $17.4M, versus $265M in Q1 2025 and $113.2M in Q4 2025, illustrating how a single outlier round can distort the picture of market momentum.
- The same investor syndicate (DST Global, Greycroft, CapitalG, BOND, Y Combinator, a16z) shows up repeatedly across Whatnot's two rounds, which suggests capital concentration around a single winner rather than broad portfolio diversification across live shopping startups.
- Whatnot's valuation more than doubled from roughly $5B (Series E, January 2025) to $11.5B (Series F, October 2025) in under a year, making it the clearest proof point that live shopping can produce billion-dollar outcomes in Western markets.
In our live shopping market deck, we will give you useful market maps and grids
Summary table of the funding deals in the live shopping market (last 5 quarters)
We define the live shopping market as online sales driven by real-time video shows where a host presents products to viewers.
We include live video shows on social platforms, marketplaces, and brand or retailer websites that link directly to products and lead to online purchases during or shortly after the show.
We exclude TV home shopping channels, offline store events, non-video promotions, and purely pre-recorded shoppable videos with no live broadcast.
You can also read our detailed analysis to understand how funding activity in the live shopping market has evolved over the last few years.
Also, you should know that we have a dedicated page, updated weekly, with all the latest fundraising deals in the live shopping market.
| Name | What they do | Amount | Quarter | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whatnot | A live shopping marketplace where sellers run real-time video auctions across collectibles, fashion, and electronics. | $265M | Q1 2025 | TechCrunch |
| BeLive Holdings | A B2B software company that helps brands and retailers add live shopping and shoppable video to their platforms. | $9.8M | Q2 2025 | Stock Titan |
| Palmstreet | A live shopping marketplace built around hobbyist communities, starting with rare plants and expanding into crafts and collectibles. | $25M | Q2 2025 | Palmstreet Blog |
| Whatnot | A live shopping marketplace where sellers run real-time video auctions across collectibles, fashion, and electronics. | $225M | Q4 2025 | Crunchbase News |
| Channelize.io | A B2B software platform that lets ecommerce and D2C brands run live shopping shows and shoppable videos on their own sites. | $1.3M | Q4 2025 | Channelize Blog |
In our live shopping market deck, we identify pain points entrepreneurs should prioritize
How has funding activity in the live shopping market changed over time?
Q1 2025 was the most active quarter by far, driven entirely by Whatnot's $265M Series E, which alone made up 50% of total funding across all five quarters.
Q3 2025 and Q1 2026 were the quietest periods, with zero disclosed qualifying rounds in either quarter.
Compared to Q4 2025, Q1 2026 saw a 100% drop in disclosed funding; compared to Q1 2025 (one year earlier), Q1 2026 also shows no disclosed activity versus $265M, a complete absence of new rounds.
If you remove Whatnot's two mega-rounds from the picture, the remaining live shopping market activity looks very modest: three deals totalling just $36.1M across five quarters, with deal sizes ranging from $1.3M to $25M. This suggests that outside of a dominant winner, the live shopping funding landscape is still at an early and fragmented stage.
| Quarter | Number of deals | Total raised | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 1 | $265M | Dominated by Whatnot's $265M Series E, the largest live shopping round of the period. |
| Q2 2025 | 2 | $34.8M | Two smaller raises: BeLive's $9.8M IPO and Palmstreet's $25M aggregate funding disclosure. |
| Q3 2025 | 0 | $0 | No qualifying disclosed live shopping funding events above $500k during this quarter. |
| Q4 2025 | 2 | $226.3M | Whatnot's $225M Series F dominated; Channelize.io added a small $1.3M community raise. |
| Q1 2026 | 0 | $0 | No qualifying disclosed live shopping funding events above $500k during this quarter. |
| All quarters | 5 | $526.1M | Five deals total, with Whatnot accounting for 93.1% of all capital raised. |
In our live shopping market deck, we identify repeatable patterns you can use if you’re building in this market
Which startups in the live shopping market raised the largest rounds over the last months?
These startups raised the most recently in the live shopping market:
- Whatnot raised $265M in January 2025 because it had already proven that live shopping could work at scale in Western markets and needed capital to expand internationally, improve seller tools, and push toward mainstream adoption.
- Whatnot raised $225M in October 2025 as a Series F to keep accelerating international growth and platform development, more than doubling its valuation to $11.5B in under 10 months.
- Palmstreet disclosed $25M in aggregate funding in May 2025 to hire across product and go-to-market, add safety and engagement features, and expand its niche live shopping communities beyond rare plants into more creator categories.
- BeLive Holdings raised $9.8M via a Nasdaq IPO in April 2025 to improve its live and video streaming technology, add AI and data capabilities, and fund marketing and general corporate growth.
- Channelize.io raised $1.3M in December 2025 through a public live fundraising campaign, using its own live commerce product to fund its next growth phase and simultaneously demonstrate the power of live selling to its market.
And, yes, we do cover most of them in our beautiful pitch about the live shopping market.
You may also want to check our ranking of the most funded startups in the live shopping market as well as our list of the most valued startups.
In our live shopping market deck, we answer all the common questions from investors and entrepreneurs
Is the live shopping market shifting toward smaller or bigger deals?
Across the five qualifying live shopping funding events between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026, the average deal size was $105.2M, but that number is almost entirely driven by Whatnot's two mega-rounds.
Breaking it down by quarter, the average deal size was $265M in Q1 2025, $17.4M in Q2 2025, and $113.2M in Q4 2025; the jumps between quarters reflect Whatnot's outsized rounds rather than a genuine shift in how the live shopping market is being funded overall.
If you exclude Whatnot's two rounds, the remaining three live shopping deals average just $12M each, suggesting that for most players in this space, funding rounds are still relatively modest in size.
| Quarter | Number of deals | Average deal size | Deals below $2M | Deals above $50M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 1 | $265M | 0 | 1 |
| Q2 2025 | 2 | $17.4M | 0 | 0 |
| Q3 2025 | 0 | n/a | 0 | 0 |
| Q4 2025 | 2 | $113.2M | 1 | 1 |
| Q1 2026 | 0 | n/a | 0 | 0 |
| All quarters | 5 | $105.2M | 1 | 2 |
In our live shopping market deck, we help you understand how the market is structured
How concentrated was funding activity in the live shopping market?
Live shopping market funding was extremely concentrated: in every active quarter, a single company captured between 71.8% and 100% of all capital raised, which is a sign that investors are betting on clear winners rather than spreading risk across many bets. In Q4 2025, Whatnot alone accounted for 99.4% of all live shopping funding in that quarter.
This level of concentration is unusual even by venture standards, and it reflects the winner-takes-most dynamics that often emerge in marketplace businesses: once a live shopping platform reaches scale, it becomes very hard for smaller players to compete for both capital and users.
| Quarter | Number of deals | % by Top 1 | % by Top 3 | % by Top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 1 | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Q2 2025 | 2 | 71.8% | 100% | 100% |
| Q3 2025 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Q4 2025 | 2 | 99.4% | 100% | 100% |
| Q1 2026 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| All quarters | 5 | 93.1% | 99.9% | 100% |
In our live shopping market deck, we have designed useful charts to give you full market clarity
Which categories in the live shopping market received the most funding?
Consumer live shopping marketplaces with a multi-category focus captured $490M, or about 93.1% of all live shopping funding, entirely because of Whatnot's two rounds; this reflects investor conviction that large, horizontal live shopping platforms with proven transaction volume can become durable, defensible businesses.
Consumer live shopping marketplaces targeting niche and vertical communities raised $25M (4.8% of the total), driven entirely by Palmstreet; this shows that community-driven live commerce around specific passions like rare plants or collectibles still attracts meaningful early-stage investment, even when the checks are much smaller.
B2B live commerce enablement and infrastructure raised $11.1M (2.1% of the total) across BeLive Holdings and Channelize.io; both companies used unconventional financing routes (an IPO and a community raise), which hints that the infrastructure layer of live shopping is still struggling to attract traditional venture capital at scale.
| Category name | Number of deals | Total raised | Startups and amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer live shopping marketplace, multi-category | 2 | $490M | Whatnot ($265M, Q1 2025) and Whatnot ($225M, Q4 2025) |
| Consumer live shopping marketplace, niche/vertical communities | 1 | $25M | Palmstreet ($25M, Q2 2025) |
| B2B live commerce enablement / infrastructure | 2 | $11.1M | BeLive Holdings ($9.8M, Q2 2025) and Channelize.io ($1.3M, Q4 2025) |
In our live shopping market deck, we cover the latest tech updates shaping the market
Who are the biggest investors in the live shopping market?
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is the most active named investor in the live shopping market with 3 deal participations, appearing in both of Whatnot's rounds and in Palmstreet's raise, which reflects a deliberate, long-term bet on live commerce becoming a major ecommerce category in the West.
DST Global participated in 2 deals, co-leading Whatnot's Series E and co-leading the Series F, making DST one of the clearest institutional believers in Whatnot's platform as a durable live shopping marketplace.
Greycroft participated in 2 deals by co-leading Whatnot's Series E and returning for the Series F, with Greycroft's consistent support of Whatnot signaling high conviction in the live shopping platform's trajectory.
Avra participated in 2 deals by co-leading Whatnot's Series E and joining the Series F, underlining Avra's focused position as a repeat backer of the live shopping market's leading consumer marketplace.
CapitalG (Alphabet's growth fund) co-led Whatnot's Series F after participating in the Series E, bringing 2 deal participations and reinforcing institutional confidence in live shopping commerce as a large consumer internet opportunity.
BOND participated in both Whatnot's Series E and Series F for a total of 2 deal participations, maintaining a steady position in the live shopping market through both of the company's largest rounds.
Y Combinator appeared in both Whatnot rounds for 2 deal participations, continuing its practice of backing portfolio companies far beyond the seed stage when they show strong market leadership in emerging categories like live commerce.
Disclaimer: this investor list may be incomplete; we focus on publicly disclosed lead and prominent recurring investors, so some frequent minority participants may be underrepresented. "Total funded" does not represent the amount personally invested by an individual investor. Instead, it refers to the aggregate amount raised across all fundraising rounds in which the investor participated.
| Investor | Number of deals | Total funded | Startups |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) | 3 | $515M | Whatnot (Q1 2025), Palmstreet (Q2 2025), Whatnot (Q4 2025) |
| DST Global | 2 | $490M | Whatnot (Q1 2025), Whatnot (Q4 2025) |
| Greycroft | 2 | $490M | Whatnot (Q1 2025), Whatnot (Q4 2025) |
| Avra | 2 | $490M | Whatnot (Q1 2025), Whatnot (Q4 2025) |
| CapitalG | 2 | $490M | Whatnot (Q1 2025), Whatnot (Q4 2025) |
| BOND | 2 | $490M | Whatnot (Q1 2025), Whatnot (Q4 2025) |
| Y Combinator | 2 | $490M | Whatnot (Q1 2025), Whatnot (Q4 2025) |
In our live shopping market deck, we track adoption trends and shifts in consumer behavior
Related blog posts
- All the funding deals announced in the live shopping market
- Which startups have raised the most funding in the live shopping market?
