source: techcrunch ai: whatnot acquires shaped to power real-time live shopping recommendations
level: business
livestream shopping app whatnot has acquired shaped, a machine learning company focused on real-time recommendation and search systems. the deal aims to enhance whatnot's discovery and personalization as it expands into new categories and serves millions of buyers. shaped's technology will help whatnot tackle the challenge of recommending products in a fast-changing live auction environment where inventory and buyer intent shift by the second.
whatnot's vp of data and ai, emmanuel fuentes, said the company has reduced recommendation latency from a day to minutes over six years. integrating shaped's systems is expected to push recommendations closer to real time. whatnot processes over 500,000 hours of live video and millions of interactions weekly, using that data to continuously refine its engine. shaped's approach combines customer data with large language models to deliver personalized search and discovery.
shaped founder tullie murrell and about a dozen engineers will join whatnot, with murrell leading a new applied ai research group. the acquisition follows whatnot's rapid growth: sellers have surpassed 1 billion orders, and the company recently raised $225 million at an $11 billion valuation. whatnot has also launched over 80 new categories since last year, as resale platforms like ebay and poshmark increasingly integrate ai.
why it matters: real-time recommendation systems are critical for live commerce platforms where product availability and user intent change rapidly, and this acquisition shows how ai can improve discovery in dynamic marketplaces.
source: techcrunch ai: whatnot acquires shaped to power real-time live shopping recommendations