Whatnot has acquired Shaped to improve its real-time recommendation capabilities in live commerce. This acquisition aims to address challenges in product discovery and personalization as the platform scales across diverse product categories.
Livestream shopping app Whatnot announced its acquisition of Shaped, a company specializing in machine learning for real-time recommendation systems. This move is intended to enhance Whatnot's ability to help shoppers discover products more effectively amidst its dynamic auction environment.
Unlike stable e-commerce sites, Whatnot's marketplace features constantly changing inventory and live auctions that can vary in duration. This presents unique challenges for providing timely and relevant product recommendations.
Whatnot's VP of Data and AI, Emmanuel Fuentes, noted that the company has reduced recommendation latency from nearly a day to minutes over the past six years. The integration of Shaped's technology is expected to decrease this latency even further, potentially providing recommendations in real time.
Founded to assist businesses in creating AI-driven recommendation systems, Shaped has worked with notable clients like Outdoorsy and QVC. Its technology leverages large language models and machine learning, enabling tailored search and discovery.
The acquisition signifies Whatnot's commitment to enhancing its functionalities as it grows, especially after surpassing one billion orders and securing $225 million in Series F funding. The addition of Shaped's expertise will likely bolster Whatnot's competitiveness in the evolving live commerce market.
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Whatnot has acquired Shaped to improve its real-time recommendation capabilities in live commerce. This acquisition aims to address challenges in product discovery and personalization as the platform scales across diverse product categories.