Whatnot acquires Shaped to power real-time live shopping recommendations
Livestream shopping platform Whatnot has acquired AI startup Shaped, a machine learning company focused on real-time recommendations and search. The deal will bolster Whatnot’s personalization and discovery features as it expands into new product categories.
Get smart on it
Whatnot, a livestream shopping app, acquired Shaped, a machine learning company specializing in real-time recommendation and search systems, to improve how shoppers find products on its platform. Live shopping presents a unique challenge for recommendations because inventory changes constantly, auctions end within minutes or last for hours, and buyer demand shifts throughout a show, making real-time personalization difficult. Whatnot has spent six years reducing how long recommendations take, moving from roughly a day down to minutes, and the acquisition is expected to push recommendations even closer to real time. The move reflects broader competition in resale platforms to integrate AI throughout their marketplaces.
Related news
TerraFirma raises $115M to build robotic infrastructure for construction
TerraFirma’s semi-autonomous excavator at work. | Source: TerraFirma TerraFirma this week raised $115 million in Series A funding. The startup said the investment will enable it to expand its engineering, manufacturing, operations, and construction teams, as well as to continue developing its semi-autonomous heavy equipment. “Construction is the foundation everything else is built on, and it’s been going backward for 50 years,” said Noah Schochet, co-founder and CEO of TerraFirma. “America built
How a former DeepMind researcher raised at a $300M pre-seed valuation before launching a product
Drawing on more than a decade spent helping build some of the world's most influential AI systems, including research that later informed the development of ChatGPT, Andrew Dai explains why he believes visual AI is one of the next major frontiers in artificial intelligence.
