Josh Richards

Aug 3, 2023

Digital product marketplace Whop.com recently announced that it raised a $17 million Series A from Insight Partners, Zinal Growth, Peter Thiel, Justin Mateen, Justin Kan, The Chainsmokers, Cory Levy, Vivek Ranadive, David Blitzer, Josh Richards, Griffin Johnson (Animal Capital), James Harden, Kevin O’Leary, and Josh Browder. The company powers the next-generation internet-first economy, serving as an all-in-one business platform helping savvy internet entrepreneurs sell their products, connecting them with customers and communities who never knew the internet could be so vast. The funding round comes amid a sharp rise in the platform’s adoption, which has processed over $100 million in transactions to date, including $10 million in the last month alone. And the platform hosts more than 3,000 sellers and has facilitated over 2 million purchases. Whop was built to address the problem of a fragmented online market for independent online ventures rife with ad-hoc solutions, disparate venues, and unreliable infrastructure. And the Internet offers a wide variety of software for every possible use. However, buyers suffer from broken payment systems, rampant scams, and inaccessible support. The company centralizes the growing internet product economy into intuitive storefronts with secure payments, customer support, and marketing optimization. And a recommendation algorithm aids in discovery, elevating trust, and delivering value to buyers and sellers. Whop plans to use its new round of funding to enhance its product catalog and bring millions of undiscovered internet products to consumers, all while giving thousands of sellers a supercharged business toolbox. Whop is investing across the board – including AI, payments, and general marketplace infrastructure. Engineers, designers, recruiters, and more are encouraged to visit the career page; developers and entrepreneurs with the next great internet product are encouraged to sell with Whop. Whop helps entrepreneurs sell the things they’ve built for various verticals, including education, e-commerce, gaming, trading, sports picks, and more. And Whop’s mission is to centralize all of the digital products on the internet, empowering people to safely sell, buy, and discover their next favorite internet-native product. KEY QUOTES: “My co-founders and I met online, building and selling software, so we know first-hand how challenging it can be to market and distribute something you created in a safe, legitimate way. That’s why we created Whop: to empower the next generation of builders to focus on creating great products, and not on finding customers in the void, on payments integration, on setting up storefronts, and all the rest that distracts from building great things. We’re thrilled to be powering the growth of this new, online-first economy. We’re giving young entrepreneurs a secure venue to build products that inspire them outside of a corporate environment.” — Steven Schwartz, Co-Founder and CEO of Whop “The Whop team has a unique understanding of their core customer and what it takes to build a community from the ground up. They are seeing strong market demand from digital creators who are looking for better infrastructure to sell their products online. We look forward to continue partnering with Whop in the next phase of their ScaleUp journey.” — Andrew Starker, Vice President at Insight Partners “Our philosophy — with music and with investing — revolves around the primacy of the digital world, looking at the future and saying ‘bring it on.’ Whop is right there with us, innovating as a marketplace for the next generation of big ideas and creations.” — Investor Alex Pall of the Chainsmokers “Being in the spotlight, I get a lot of opportunities across my plate, and this is one of the more unique ones. They are doing something different.” — Whop investor James Harden, 10-time NBA All-Star Trending on Pulse 2.0