Whop Closes $200M Series D at $5.1B Valuation to Expand Payments and Advertising Infrastructure

Sequoia Capital and Shopify Ventures led the round, which comes eight months after Tether’s $200M strategic investment at a $1.6B valuation.

Whop, a Palo Alto-based technology company whose platform enables people to start and run online businesses, announced on October 21 that it has raised $200 million in Series D funding at a $5.1 billion valuation. The round was co-led by Sequoia Capital and Shopify Ventures.

The company said the capital will accelerate its global expansion and fund research and development aimed at making payment and advertising markets radically more efficient. It is Whop’s second fundraise of 2026, following a $200 million strategic investment from Tether at a $1.6 billion valuation in February.

Whop gives business operators a gamified interface and an API spanning distribution, business creation and money. The company reports that roughly 25,000 business operators generate $550 million on the platform each month, that more than 50,000 other people earn a monthly income by providing services to those businesses, and that it facilitates more than $7 billion in on-platform transactions for people in 185 countries.

According to Bloomberg, which first reported the deal, most of Whop’s revenue comes from a percentage of each transaction its business operators process, with a blended average fee of about 6%, according to CEO Steven Schwartz, and the company recently passed $400 million in annualized run-rate revenue, up from $60 million at the start of 2025.

“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,” Schwartz said in the announcement.

Doug Leone, a partner at Sequoia Capital, is joining the company’s board, Bloomberg reported. “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.

Whop’s recent launches include Business Blueprints, used to create more than 21,000 businesses in the six weeks since launch; the Whop CLI, which makes the company’s API compatible with any AI agent and, together with its MCP connectors, receives more than 350,000 calls per day from more than 14,700 monthly active users, and Economic Intelligence, a decision engine trained on millions of transactions that recommends the highest-ROI next move for each business.

The company said most businesses on its platform serve specific customer needs, giving as examples invoicing software for trucking companies, emergency tree removal services, private jet booking platforms, neobanks for dropshippers and data suppliers for humanoid robotics companies. Bloomberg listed Peter Thiel, A*, Insight Partners and Bain Capital Ventures as earlier investors. Whop maintains an office in New York and is hiring across engineering, product, sales and operations roles. Founded in 2021, Whop employs about 110 people, per Bloomberg.