Whop announced a $200 million Series D on October 21 at a $5.1 billion valuation. Sequoia Capital and Shopify Ventures led the round, which follows a $200 million strategic investment from Tether at a $1.6 billion valuation in February.
The company says the money will accelerate its global expansion and fund research and development to make payment and advertising markets more efficient.
Bloomberg, which first reported the deal, said Sequoia partner Doug Leone is joining Whop’s board of directors. Bloomberg also reported that Whop was founded in 2021 by three founders who met as teenagers while building software to track sneaker releases, and that the company recently passed $400 million in annualized run-rate revenue, up from $60 million at the beginning of 2025.
“They’re doing about a half billion revenue, business is doing great, and we’re helping humanity create businesses for people who can’t find a job,” Leone said in the company’s announcement.
Whop describes its customers as business operators, ranging from heads of product at high-growth startups to 16-year-old first-time entrepreneurs. It provides them with a gamified user interface and an API covering distribution, business creation, and money. Roughly 25,000 operators generate $550 million on the platform each month, the company says, and more than 50,000 other people earn a monthly income by providing services to those businesses.
“We take inspiration from the traditional economy in designing Whop, and because businesses are the primary conduit by which people earn money and create value, we focus on them as our primary customer,” said Steven Schwartz, co-founder and CEO.
The company said most businesses on the platform serve hyper-specific customer needs, listing invoicing software for trucking companies, emergency tree removal services, private jet booking platforms, neobanks for dropshippers and data suppliers for humanoid robotics companies as examples.
Recent launches include Business Blueprints, which lets new operators launch a ready-to-sell business in a few clicks and has produced more than 21,000 businesses in six weeks; the Whop CLI, which makes the API compatible with any AI agent and, with the company’s MCP connectors, handles more than 350,000 calls per day from more than 14,700 monthly active users; and Economic Intelligence, a decision engine that recommends the highest-ROI next move for each business.
The company says it facilitates more than $7 billion in on-platform transactions for people in 185 countries. It is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, has an office in New York, and is hiring in engineering, product, sales, and operations. The company has about 110 employees, per Bloomberg. Bloomberg named Peter Thiel, A*, Insight Partners, and Bain Capital Ventures among its earlier investors.
