#201 – Perplexity Helps You Shop, Temu Opens To US Sellers, & TikTok Prints Books

by Shopifreaks | Nov 25, 2024 | Recent Newsletters

Hi Shopifreaks

How do you feel about AI bots doing your online shopping for you? Hit reply and let me know.

Personally I'm not ready to let bots buy things for me yet because I don't trust their ability to either get me the best price or judge when price / quality is most important to me for a particular purchase.

Similar to how when Amazon came out with its Dash Buttons almost a decade ago, which allowed customers to reorder household items with one push of a button — I remember thinking, “I'm not going to trust Amazon to re-order items for me! I want to make sure I'm getting the best price before I click Checkout.”

Using AI as a tool to comparative shop — love it.

Writing AI a blank check to auto-complete purchases for me — not quite sold yet.

But I'm open to having my feelings changed in the future.

Last week I reported that OpenAI is currently working on autonomous AI agents that can shop for you online (among other things), and today we explore Perplexity's new e-commerce shopping tool, which I can only imagine will also utilize autonomous bots in the future as well.

AI agents are on the cusp of making our lives easier, and I'm ready for it! Just not ready for them to spend my money on my behalf yet…

In this week's edition I cover:

ChatGPT's colossal market share
Perplexity's new shopping tool
Temu opens to all US sellers
Revolut's plans to be #1
The future of de minimis
PubMatic to serve ads on X
ByteDance will soon print books
Alibaba merges its global and domestic operations
PayPal Money Pools are back
Google launches in-store product insights
A TikTok livestreaming store in Los Angeles
Amazon's says no more fee increases

All this and more in this week's 201st Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!

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And now let's dive into this week's top stories!

Stat of the Week

ChatGPT, Meta AI, and Google Gemini lead the way when it comes to AI usage in 2024.

Initially I was surprised that OpenAI‘s market share wasn't MUCH higher! However then I realized that Microsoft, Snap Inc., and GetGenie‘s AI products are all powered by ChatGPT. So if you include those, that would bump up ChatGPT's market share to 54.6% — which is closer to where I would've guessed.

Meta‘s rapid ascent to second place makes sense given that it integrated its AI front and center into its apps. Meanwhile, Google is feeling what it's like to have a bronze medal for the first time.

Share / comment on LinkedIn.

1. Perplexity launches an e-commerce shopping tool

Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine backed by Jeff Bezos, Tobi Lütke, and other notable investors, debuted a new shopping feature for its paid customers in the US that offers shopping recommendations as well as the ability to place an order without going to a retailer's website.

“Buy with Pro” enables users to ask questions or post requests like “Find the best hiking shoes for a long uphill hike” or “Which sunscreen with SPF 50 or higher offers moisturizing properties?” to begin their shopping journey.

After entering a shopping search query or uploading a photo of an item, the tool searches the web and presents the user with visual cards that have details of the product, pricing, seller info, a short description, and the pros and cons of the item. The user can then tap on the card to view more information including reviews and key features.

From there, the user can purchase the item with one click using their saved payment info and shipping address, which Perplexity uses to calculate taxes. This is powered by integrations with sellers' websites, including those on Shopify, Amazon, Best Buy, and other major retailers.

As an additional perk, Perplexity is offering free shipping on all Buy with Pro orders, but it didn't mention how long that promo would last.

The company has been testing Buy with Pro for six weeks with around 1,000 users. The service is included in Perplexity's Professional plan, which is priced at $20/month or $200/year.

Perplexity also launched a merchant program.

The company says that merchants who enroll in the program will have a better chance of being a recommended product because they'll have more complete information in its index.

As an added bonus, merchants will be granted free API access to power search on their own websites using Perplexity's large language models and search algorithms.

Currently Perplexity is not taking a cut from user purchases. The company also clarified that its new shopping feature is separate from its ads product, which I reported on last week (story #6). Although I imagine ads will be introduced to the shopping experience at some point.

2. Temu makes it easier for US sellers to join its marketplace

Temu has now opened its marketplace for all US sellers to apply. For the past six months, Temu has been recruiting US sellers to join its site, but merchants could only join if they had a unique invite code. Now any seller can apply on their site, which takes about 10 minutes to complete.

A Temu spokesperson told Modern Retail in an e-mail statement, “Sellers can now ship directly from US warehouses, delivering products to customers faster than ever—sometimes in just one business day.”

Here are the steps to apply:

Visit Temu's seller portal
Create an account
Enter your business info such as name, address, & EIN
Enter your personal info such as your address, citizenship info, and drivers license or passport number
Provide your store name and logo
Provide proof of address like a utility bill

From there Temu will approve or reject your account in about one business day.

US merchants currently represent less than 1% of Temu's estimated 300,000 total sellers, according to Marketplace pulse, but I imagine that will change soon as merchants further seek to diversify their operations across additional marketplaces and sales channels.

Is Amazon worried?

Amazon announced last week that it doesn't intend to raise its merchant fulfillment and referral fees next year. The company said that despite inflation and greater investment in employee pay and benefits, it had managed to reduce costs through innovation, greater efficiency, and reducing defects, so therefore it will not raise fees or introduce new ones.

However you have to wonder if Amazon's announcement is related to Temu opening up its marketplace to US sellers. Suddenly Amazon, after years of squeezing its third-party sellers, has to deal with the fact that there's somewhere else big to go.

🔥 Partner News

Omnisend is making it easier for customers to analyze sales reports and compare how much revenue each sales channel — e-mail, SMS, and push — brings to the table. The company listened to user feedback about wanting to dig deeper into their analytics and updated its reporting capabilities to be more intuitive, effective, and consistent, allowing customers to track sales data from every channel for any time period to compare performance, identify top revenue drivers, and make data-driven decisions that maximize ROI. The company is launching its new intuitive reporting interface on Dec 10th for all users.

3. Revolut to launch mortgages, smart ATMs, and an AI assistant

Revolut, the London-based fintech that offers banking, crypto, stock trading, insurance, and personal budgeting tools, shared upcoming features on its 2025 roadmap at a corporate event last week. Here's what the company has in store for next year.

An AI-powered assistant to help its 50M customers navigate the app, manage money, and customize the software.
Branded ATMs that will dispense not only cash, but also cards, which could make the signup process easier for new customers.
Facial recognition on its ATMs to allow users to authenticate themselves without a card or PIN code.
Mortgages that focus on speed with a simple application process and instant approval options.
Embedded BNPL payment options for its business customers.
Revolut Kiosks for restaurants and stores with biometric payment capabilities.

Revolut's leadership team says they're aiming to build the world's first truly global bank, with aggressive expansion plans that include doubling their customer base to 100M and generating annual revenues of $100B.

Revolut's cofounder Nik Storonsky said, “We want to not only be number one in Europe in every single country, but also in the US, Canada, Latin America, and Asia. That's the goal.”

With respect, they might want to get their house in order first before building an extension. BBC recently found that Revolut was named in more recent reports of fraud in the last financial year than any of the major banks. BBC shared the story of a Revolut user named Jack who had lost £165k to fraud in under an hour on the platform, which Revolut refuses to take accountability for and refund. At first when reading the story, I thought — “well that was kind of his fault” — but then the details and lack of action by Revolut were astonishing.

4. Commission urges US lawmakers to eliminate de minimis for Chinese goods

The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which is tasked with investigating and assessing China’s trade behaviors and reporting on inherent risks to American interests, is urging lawmakers to eliminate the de minimis trade provision for imports sold through online marketplaces originating from China.

The commission released its annual findings and recommendations on Tuesday, sharing its deepening anxieties about China's influence on the US consumer and manufacturing markets.

The Commission recommended that Congress:

Fully eliminate the de minis trade provision, which offers duty free imports under $800 in value, that are sold through Chinese marketplaces amid a “rapid escalation of e-commerce sales” originating from the country.
Revoke China's permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status, which has been in place since the country joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 and has afforded the country the same benefits and trade terms as US allies for more than two decades.
Dig into the operation of the US – Mexico – Canada Trade Agreement to determine whether it has inadvertently facilitated the transportation of Chinese products over the border via these countries acting as intermediaries.

If China's PNTR status is revoked, Commissioner Jacob Helberg said it would give President Trump the “the flexibility to recalibrate America’s trading relationship with China” in light of its failure to comply with its WTO commitments. This could potentially lead to annual reviews of China's trade practices and the introduction of new tariffs, which Trump has been promising.

Helberg noted about the fashion industry:

“We’re not going to have a fashion industry across the West if we keep these types of loopholes. It’s very clear that platforms like Shein and Temu shop around the world to different fashion brands, steal all the designs and then ship copycats of these products in three days, tax-free, to customers around the West… And so we can either have a fashion industry or we can have de minimis, but we probably can’t have both.”

The US currently takes in more than 4M de minimis packages each day, most of which originate from China.

5. X partners with PubMatic to boost ad revenue

X signed up as an authorized seller of PubMatic ads, as it looks to outside companies to help boost ad revenue. PubMatic is a supply-side platform that helps website, apps, and streaming-TV providers manage, sell, and optimize their advertising inventory.

PubMatic's COE Rajeev Goel said on its recent earnings call:

“Historically, X had only accessed social-media ad budgets. They selected PubMatic as an SSP partner, opening up their traditionally closed ecosystem to tap into the $26 billion in open internet native display and video ad spend.”

PubMatic joins Google and InMobi, which each previously made deals with the company to sell ads on its platform. However, Business Insider sources say that although InMobi is listed as a seller of X ads on its Ads.txt file, the company hasn't offered ads on X for more than a year.

Before Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, the social media company did not open up its ad inventory to outside vendors, and instead exclusively brokered deals with advertisers directly.

Is it a bad idea for X to outsource its advertising?

Pros: It's easier, doesn't require a huge in-house advertising division, and opens up the platform to more advertising partners.

Cons: It gives X less control over which ads appear on its platform, which may not be that big of a deal, as X doesn't seem to be too particular in that regard, and X has to give the supply-side platforms a cut of the revenue.

To be frank — X might not have much choice at this point. Brands aren't necessarily lining up to advertise on the platform. That'll happen when you sue your advertisers! Which by the way, X just added Twitch to its lawsuit, which is claiming that dozens of companies conspired with an advertising industry group to boycott the social media platform, causing it to lose revenue.

WARC recently reported that X’s ad revenue dropped by 46.4% between 2022 and 2023 — from $4.5B to $2.2B — and that the decline is forecast to continue with revenue in 2024 predicted to come in at $2B and below that in 2025.

6. ByteDance will soon begin publishing print books

ByteDance will begin publishing print books in February, initially focusing on genres that are popular on BookTok — the area of its platform where TikTok users share book recommendations — such as romance, contemporary fiction, young adult, and “romantasy” (a blend of romance and fantasy).

The company already publishes e-books through its imprint 8th Note Press, but now it will begin selling physical copies as well. 8th Note Press will work in partnership with Zando to publish print editions and sell copies in physical bookstores starting early 2025.

Jacob Bronstein, head of editorial and marketing at ByteDance, told the New York Times:

“We’re thinking first: what do people like reading, who is reading these books, how are people talking about these books, how are these conversations happening online, and where? Genre comes second.”

Expanding into print was always part of 8th Note’s plan, according to Bronstein. He noted:

“Physical books are still overwhelmingly the most popular format, and certainly in specific genres, some of which we’re playing in, they’re still super important. So we knew that we needed to be in physical books.”

ByteDance's initial roster of print books will include six titles:

On Screen & Off Again by Caitlin Cross, publishing 4th February 2025
The Last Man in Paradise by Syed M Masood, publishing 18th March 2025
To Have and Have More by Sanibel, publishing 15th April 2025
Love to Hate You by Marina Adair, publishing 22nd April 2025
The Lost Saint by Rachael Craw, publishing 29th April 2025
Learning to Fall by Peach Morris, publishing 15th May 2025

In July 2023, ByteDance started approaching authors after filing a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office that indicated that the company will provide a range of book publishing services, including print, e-books and audiobooks. According to the trademark description, it will create an ecosystem in which “virtual communities” can “participate in discussions, consumer reviews and social networking.”

ByteDance should publish my coffee table book Capital Cities and my mom's paperback I Saw Bubbi in the Mirror! Shameless plugs…

7. Alibaba merges its global & domestic operations

Alibaba's e-commerce platforms, including Taobao, Tmall Group, and Alibaba International Digital Commerce, are integrating under a single business unit to be called Alibaba Ecommerce Business Group.

Alibaba International runs Alibaba.com, AliExpress, Lazada, Trendyol (its Turkish e-commerce platform), and Cainiao Group (its logistics division).

The merger marks the first time that the group's domestic Chinese e-commerce group and its international e-commerce platforms will be integrated. Alibaba International Digital Commerce chief Jiang Fan has been appointed to lead the new unit, reporting to Alibaba Group Chief Executive Eddie Wu.

The new group will be tasked with expanding market access for merchants to reach new buyers and expand their businesses globally, and enhancing supply chain integration by using Alibaba's resources, insights, and logistics platforms to create more synergies across its global supply chains.

Alibaba said when announcing the new structure:

“This decision reflects Alibaba’s unwavering commitment to investing in its core commerce business and enhancing the quality of operations to win in the highly competitive ecommerce sector. [The new group] creates significant new synergies across global supply chains and supports small and midsized enterprises to expand their markets in China and internationally.”

“Ecommerce business models within China and internationally are transitioning into a new phase where expertise in global supply chains, fulfillment, and the ability to provide quality online shopping experience will dictate competitive success.”

Alibaba may be the OG of US-China marketplaces, but with this merger and other recent internal changes, the company is telling the world — we're not done yet!

If the US does in fact abolish the de minimis loophole for Chinese retailers, Alibaba has a competitive advantage on B2B relations between US retailers and Chinese manufacturers, and retail competitors will be forced to play catch up.

8. PayPal Money Pools are back

PayPal is relaunching a feature that lets users pool money with friends and family to collectively pay for trips, travel, restaurants, and anything else.

The feature, called “Money Pools,” first made its debut on the platform in 2017, but was shuttered in 2021. Now Money Pools are back in time for the holiday season in the US, UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain with new and improved features.

Unlike the old version, people can now contribute to the pools even if they don't have a PayPal account.

A PayPal spokesperson told TechCrunch the feature is returning “due to high customer demand,” however the company never fully explained why it shut down Money Pools in the first place.

Either way, it's back! In the new version of the service, users will be able to setup a pool from the PayPal app or website by adding a title, description, target date, and optional goal amount for the pool. Once published, PayPal generates a shareable link to send to your friends, family, or crypto scamming Telegram group.

John Anderson, GM, SVP of Consumer at PayPal, said in a statement:

“Everyday life is all about connections, whether it’s chipping in for a group gift or planning a trip with friends and family. PayPal understands this and aims to make those moments easier. We’re excited to introduce a simple, no-cost solution for collecting and managing funds for group purchases, helping our customers navigate both the social and financial aspects of their lives with each.”

Fintech apps have already offered ways to split expenses among a group of people, but TechCrunch notes that those features are more useful when you have already paid a bill, whereas Money Pools are handy when you want to get money from people upfront before spending it on something.

9. Other e-commerce news of interest

Google introduced in-store product insights and price comparisons to its Google Lens feature, along with local product inventory searches on Google Maps. The new features allow you to snap a picture of an item in a store to read reviews, while also seeing if the toy is cheaper at a different retailer. Google says that 20B visual searches happen via Lens every month and that 72% of shoppers use smartphones while in-store.

Google also added Afterpay and Klarna to its Google Pay checkout flow, complementing its existing partnerships with Affirm and Zip. By expanding its roster of BNPL options, Google Pay strengthens its competitive edge against Amazon Pay, which currently limits its BNPL offerings to Affirm, and Apple Pay, which integrates with Affirm and Klarna. Although Amazon and Affirm's exclusivity agreement ended last year, Amazon has yet to collaborate with additional BNPL providers.

Outlandish, an experiential store in Los Angeles that blends livestreaming with in-person retail, opened for business last week. The store features a first floor of branded stalls where a lineup of hosts sit in front of bright lights and livestream sell their wares to TikTok audiences, while on the second floor, visitors can shop for goods from those sellers, which include brands like Goli Nutrition and Anker. Outlandish makes money from the space by charging management fees for its live-shopping segments, as well as a percentage of online sales.

Toys R Us and the United States Postal Service are partnering up for this year's Operation Santa program, which for the past 112 years has allowed the public to “adopt” letters to Santa written by children to help make their holiday wishes come true. The new platform, called Santa's Gift Shoppe, makes it easier for adopters to shop for gifts online this year and ship them to children's homes, without ever having to handle the gifts. The USPS hopes that this partnership with Toys R Us is just the beginning, and has plans to expand its collaborations to include other items like clothing, shoes, and books into its online catalogue.

At least 50 of the largest US retailers, including Big Lots, Gap, Petco, Macy's, and Nordstrom, jacked up interest rates on their store credit cards in the months prior to the Federal Reserve cutting rates, in moves to protect or increase their profit margins. On average, companies raised their APRs between 2.5 to 6 percentage points, bringing some retailers as high as 35.99%! The APRs on retail credit cards rose on average by 1.52 percentage points between September 2023 and September 2024, while the average traditional credit card rate increased by only .08 percentage points.

Wix launched an AI-powered visual sitemap and wireframe generator tool for its Wix Studio platform. The new feature allows agencies to input project details, including business type, site description, goals, target audience, and tone of voice, and then creates a tailored sitemap structure and wireframe to kick off the creation process.

Many US airports are approaching peak capacity due to the influx of e-commerce cargo. For example, Miami International Airport told The Loadster that its capacity is three million tons based on its warehousing space, but during the past few years it's been close to 2.8 million tons, which is pushing it very close to capacity. MIA doesn't have plans to stop accepting e-commerce cargo anytime soon even as it nears capacity, and instead is exploring creative ways to become more efficient and increase cargo storage.

Coca-Cola is facing backlash online over its AI-generated Christmas promotional video that users are calling “soulless” and “devoid of any actual creativity.” The video, which features everything from big red Coca-Cola trucks driving through snowy streets to people smiling in knitted scarves and hats holding Coca-Cola bottles, was was meant to pay homage to a classic 1995 Coca-Cola commercial, but ended up drawing criticism from creatives who argued that it was distasteful for the company to use AI technology to create the video instead of work with artists. Well, sorry to tell you creatives, but get ready to feel a lot of distaste in the near future towards AI-generated commercials…

Starting this Friday, Whatnot, a livestreaming real-time auction website, will drop its commission fee to 0% on all auction and marketplace sales for 24 hours in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, as part of a Black Friday promotion to kick off the holiday season. The platform will also be choosing special shows to feature during the Black Friday event of sellers offering significant deals and/or planning a particularly fun or entertaining show.

USPS is raising the cost of Priority Mail and Ground Advantage services by 3.2% and 3.9% respectively, beginning January 19, 2025, the day after its peak season rate hike ends. The Postal Service will not be raising the price of its Mailing Services, which means the cost of a First Class stamp will remain unchanged at $0.73.

Shopify is facing criticism for hosting an online store that promotes antisemitic merchandise like apparel with Holocaust-denial designs. The store is marketed via an anti-Jewish account on X called TheOfficial1984 that has more than 220,000 followers. While previous versions of Shopify's Acceptable Use Policy banned “hateful content,” according to archives on the Wayback Machine, the clause appears to have been removed in July 2024, according to Bloomberg. At the time of writing this, the Shopify store is still online. Personally, and as a Jew, I don't mind if people purchase and wear Holocaust-denial clothing. It makes it easier to spot the antisemitic idiots!

63% of millennials said they plan to spend the same or more on holiday shopping as they did last year, the highest share of any generation, according to a report by TransUnion. Millennials were also more likely to say their income went up over the last few months and that they expect their earnings potential to increase again in the years ahead. A different report by NerdWallet revealed that 28% of shoppers surveyed in September had still not paid off the gifts they purchased last year.

Shopify added David Heinemeier Hansson, the founder and steward of Ruby on Rails, to its board of directors. Ruby on Rails has a long history with Shopify and is still a part of the company's technology stack. In October, Hansson criticized Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg's actions towards WPEngine, causing Mullenweg to respond with a scathing reply that criticized Hannson for not making enough money on his projects. The post has since been removed from Mullenweg's blog, but you can read an archived version here.

Meta hired Clara Shih, who previously served as Salesforce's CEO of AI, to launch a new product group focused on developing AI-powered tools for businesses. Shih will be responsible for developing and monetizing AI tools such as business AI chatbots and other B2B products, such as automated ad tools.

The US Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytica several years ago. Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump's first successful presidential campaign in 2016. The lack of disclosures led to two significant price drops of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal. Meta already has paid a $5.1B fine and reached a $725M privacy settlement with users.

GrubHub has been hit with a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of funneling consumer data to TikTok and contributing to a national security threat from China. According to the complaint, GrubHub embedded software created by TikTok on its website to identify and track visitors by siphoning their data and pairing it with stored data that TikTok has collected from hundreds of millions of Americans in a process called “fingerprinting.” The complaint notes that GrubHub's privacy policy explicitly states it does not “sell communications content to third parties or share it with third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising” or “for business or commercial purposes.” Meanwhile Marc Lore and the team at Wonder Group are like, “Damnit! We just acquired this company!”

In response to Bluesky's recent growth and due to user demand, Threads “rebalanced” its platform to show less recommended content from accounts you don't follow and more posts from the accounts you do — which is how Bluesky and the old Twitter worked. Adam Mosseri, who oversees both Threads and Instagram, said, “For you creators out there, you should see unconnected reach go down and connected reach go up.” Since launch, Threads has focused on being a “discovery” platform, connecting users with content creators and influencers they don't follow, but whose content they may be interested in. However users want more control of their feeds, including the ability to better connect with folks they follow, so Threads is making the pivot.

YouTube released a feature called the “Dream Screen” for Shorts that displays a live animation background behind creators, instead of a static image that sometimes glitches as people move. Instead of having YouTube generate AI images to create a scene, users can now create AI-generated video backgrounds that offer animations and more interactive displays.

Meanwhile TikTok is developing an AI Avatar feature that allows creators to generate a virtual avatar that resembles their personality and thinking, enabling continuous interaction with users 24/7. This is similar to Meta's virtual avatar model, which it showcased at its recent Connect event. Virtual avatars have been available on Douyin, TikTok's sister app in China, for some time, with many hosting continuous shopping livestreams in the app.

WhatsApp is rolling out a voice message transcript feature that transcribes your audio messages into text for when you are unable (or unwilling) to listen to the voice message. The transcripts are generated on your device and no one else can read them. Supported languages include English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and 14 others. Do they have any idea how much processing power that will take in Latin America? LOL. When I first started traveling in Central and South America, I couldn't believe how long of voice messages people would send each other! Folks down here love the voice message. The ability to read them (instead of listen) will be super helpful for gringos like me because I'll be able to copy / paste and translate the message when I don't understand.

In other WhatsApp news, the platform is testing ways for users to provide feedback to businesses about what kind of messages they want to receive (or not receive). The feature involves buttons like “interested / not interested” and “stop / resume” for specific categories of messages. Businesses can send messages through WhatsApp's API based on one of four categories including marketing, utility, authentication, and service, and now customers can opt-out of each category individually.

Amazon informed staff in Germany that they can apply to work from home for up to two days a week when the company's global return to office mandate takes effect, according to a leaked internal document seen by Business Insider. The leaked document noted that work from home arrangements could only be made for 1-2 days every week and are limited to a one-year time frame. The notice impacts all Amazon workers in Germany except for Twitch and Audible employees.

Meta confirmed the removal of over 2M accounts linked to scam centers in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Philippines. The company said that it's going after the criminal organizations behind “pig butchering” and other scams, which target people globally through messaging, dating, and other apps to convince them to invest under false pretenses. Meta has partnered with law enforcement and other organizations in the private sector to share insights and work together to disrupt the operations.

Amazon launched a holiday campaign featuring actor Adam Driver reading real-life reviews left by actual customers. Driver turns the “deeply personal” reviews into theatrical monologues in ten different 30-60 second ads running across social media and Amazon's owned channels. You can check out Driver's monologue of a banana slicer, seal plush, and Dutch oven.

10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions

Levanta, an affiliate network that runs on top of Amazon (and also one of our News Partners), raised $20M in a round led by Volition Capital. Since launching in 2023, Levanta has generated close to $286M in GMV for sellers. The company will use the funding to expand its team, advance its product development, and strengthen its market position. Congrats guys!

xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup, raised $5B in a round participated in by Qatar Investment Authority, Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz, bringing its total amount raised to $11B this year. The new funding brings its post-investment value to $50B, exceeding the $44B price Musk paid for Twitter in 2022. xAI was valued at $24B when it raised $6B earlier this year.

Anthropic, a San Francisco-based AI platform started by former OpenAI members, raised an additional $4B from Amazon, and has agreed to train its flagship generative AI models primarily on Trainium, a machine learning accelerator developed by Amazon Web Services. The cash infusion brings Amazon's total investment in Anthropic to $8B. To date, the company has raised $13.7B in venture capital.

Appcharge, a Tel Aviv-based startup platform for publishers to build their own sites for selling gaming currencies and other virtual goods, raised $26M in round led by Creandum, at a $100M valuation. Appcharge provides technology to help link gaming accounts between apps with the stores run by the publishers themselves, while acting as the “merchant of record” for the publishers, a role that Apple and Google typically plays for mobile game publishers.

Taito.ai, a Helsinki-based platform designed to enhance employee performance and development by enabling employees to set and track personal goals that align with their personal and company objectives, raised $2.7M in a round led by Accel. The company is in a closed beta phase with clients including Faculty and Supermetrics and plans to launch publicly in 2025.

ariika, an Egyptian furniture e-commerce platform that partners with artisans around the world, raised $3M in a Series A extension led by Belton Venture Capital. The company will use the funds to fuel its local market expansion while strengthening its presence in Saudi and Iraq, its two biggest markets.

Locad, an e-commerce logistics startup that provides order fulfillment, warehousing, and inventory management, raised $9M in a pre-Series B round co-led by Global Ventures and Reefknot Investments. The company did not disclose the valuation at which the fundraising was made, but Reuters sources said it was around $60M. The company will use the funds to “double down” on building its logistics engine, which is its cloud-based software platform that integrates with Shopify, Shopee, Amazon, and TikTok Shop.

T.D. Jakes Enterprises, a social impact holding company whose mission it is to create high-impact content and opportunities that disrupt convention, acquired Castiron, an e-commerce technology startup that develops solutions tailored for artisans and small-scale producers. The acquisition enables the launch of Nourysh, an all-in-one e-commerce platform designed to empower underrepresented and under-resourced entrepreneurs nationwide that offers lower pricing than many leading platforms.

Moglix, an India-based B2B e-commerce company specializing in procurement of industrial supplies, acquired Khatema Fibres, a packaging solutions provider that specializes in the production of eco-friendly paper products, for $10.6M. The acquisition is expected to strengthen Moglix's market presence and also aligns with the company's recent initiative of launching Next Day Delivery across 12 cities in India.

Centerfield, a Los Angeles-based customer acquisition company that leverages data-driven insights to create personalized consumer experiences, acquired Brainjolt, a digital publishing company that specializes in creating shareable content such as quizzes and other forms of interactive media, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will add social commerce capabilities to Centerfield's platform, enabling it to drive additional purchases at scale for its clients.

Kintsugi, a San Francisco-based startup that connects to a company's billing and payment systems, figures out which states they are liable to pay sales tax, registers the company in those states, and then automatically calculates and remits what the company owes, raised an additional $4M in a Series A extension led by Airwallex, doubling its valuation to $80M since its Series A round in April. The company launched in 2022 and has since grown its customer base to more than 1,100 users and earned $1M in revenue. It plans to use the funds to expand its tech and to expand into Canada and Europe.

Addi, a Bogota-based fintech for integrated payments, shopping, and banking, secured a $100M credit facility from Victory Park Capital, which the company intends to allocate to supports its financing and BNPL solutions. The company reached profitability this past year, obtained regulatory approval to become a bank, and launched its marketplace platform, which it has since added over 500 merchants.

Zepto, an India-based quick commerce grocery delivery service, raised an additional $350M in its third round of financing in six months, as the company strengthens its position against its competitors Blinkit, Instamart, and BigBasket, ahead of its planned IPO next year. Zepto, which has now raised over $1.35B since June, serves more than 7M orders in over 17 cities daily and is on track to record annualized sales of $2B.