Whatnot acquires Shaped to improve live shopping recommendations

In short: Livestream shopping app Whatnot has acquired Shaped, an AI company that builds real-time search and recommendation tools.

What happened

Whatnot said it bought Shaped, a startup that specializes in helping apps recommend items and show better search results while things are changing quickly. Financial terms were not shared.

Whatnot runs live shopping shows and auctions, where items can sell out fast and new listings appear constantly. That makes it harder to suggest the right products to each shopper, because what is available can change from one moment to the next.

Whatnot told TechCrunch it has spent years speeding up its recommendation system, cutting the delay from about a day to just minutes. By adding Shaped’s technology, Whatnot expects to move even closer to real-time recommendations, meaning suggestions update almost as events happen.

Shaped was founded to help businesses build personalized recommendations using machine learning, which is software that learns patterns from data (like noticing what you click and buy, then suggesting similar items). Shaped’s founder and CEO, Tullie Murrell, and nearly a dozen engineers and AI researchers will join Whatnot. Murrell will lead a new Applied AI Research group.

Why it matters

For shoppers, better real-time recommendations can make live auctions easier to follow, like having a helpful store clerk who keeps up as the shelves change. For sellers, it could help the right buyers find their listings faster, especially as Whatnot expands into more product categories.

Source: TechCrunch AI