OpenAI wants shopping in ChatGPT. Wassist raises $1.1M to keep it on WhatsApp — TFN

• London-based Wassist raises $1.1 million pre-seed spherical led by Playfair to make WhatsApp commerce accessible with out engineering groups
• Founder Josh Warwick constructed the product throughout weekend hackathons, rising utilization from 2,000 to 80,000 buyer conversations with out paid advertising
• The startup lets manufacturers deploy AI-powered WhatsApp brokers that reply questions, get better carts, suggest merchandise, and full purchases inside chat

For years, companies have chased clients throughout e-mail, search, social media, and paid promoting. But regardless of billions spent on buyer acquisition, engagement charges proceed to say no. In the meantime, a unique channel has quietly develop into the default means billions of individuals talk.

London-based startup Wassist believes WhatsApp is about to develop into the subsequent main commerce platform. The corporate has raised a $1.1 million pre-seed spherical led by Playfair, with participation from Certainly founder Paul Forster, Meta board member Charlie Songhurst, Cleo founder Barney Hussey-Yeo, and angels from Balderton Capital and Daybreak Capital.

The funding will probably be used to speed up product improvement and develop the corporate’s no-code platform, which permits companies to deploy AI-powered WhatsApp brokers in minutes.

As customers more and more flip to ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI-powered search instruments for product suggestions, manufacturers face a rising problem: they’re shedding possession of buyer conversations.

When clients ask an AI assistant which product to purchase, the interplay typically takes place inside OpenAI, Google, or one other platform. The model not often sees the questions being requested or the elements driving buying selections.

Wassist was created to vary that. As a substitute of directing buyers to exterior AI platforms, the corporate allows manufacturers to deploy their very own AI ambassadors instantly inside WhatsApp, permitting companies to keep up one-to-one relationships with clients whereas gathering useful insights from each interplay.

The timing seems beneficial. Meta expanded its WhatsApp Enterprise API lately, whereas advances in giant language fashions have made conversational commerce considerably extra sensible and reasonably priced.

From Oxford engineer to WhatsApp commerce founder

Wassist was based in 2025 by Josh Warwick, a pc science graduate from Oxford College. Earlier than launching the corporate, Warwick served as Technical Lead at engineering consultancy Theodo, the place he helped construct merchandise for organisations together with Admiral and Cleo. He later turned co-founder and CTO of proptech startup Ark.

The thought for Wassist emerged from Warwick’s deep expertise constructing on WhatsApp since 2023 and understanding the complexity behind the platform’s infrastructure.

Constructing on WhatsApp’s Enterprise API sometimes requires dealing with message templates, approval processes, webhooks, routing programs, media administration, fee flows, and dialog guidelines. For many companies, meaning months of engineering work.

Warwick spent ten months constructing Wassist largely throughout weekend hackathons. Throughout that interval, the platform generated greater than 2,000 buyer conversations with out paid advertising. At this time, that determine has grown to over 80,000 conversations.

The startup lately made its first rent and was chosen for Balderton Capital’s Launched programme.

“WhatsApp is about to develop into the default commerce channel for companies. OpenAI desires these conversations to occur in ChatGPT and Google desires them in Search, however clients already spend their time on WhatsApp. We constructed Wassist so manufacturers can personal these conversations themselves,” mentioned Josh Warwick.

How Wassist turns WhatsApp right into a gross sales channel

Wassist permits a service provider to create an AI-powered WhatsApp agent just by getting into a retailer URL. The platform routinely creates a brand-trained assistant able to answering product questions, recommending gadgets, recovering deserted carts, dealing with order updates, and guiding clients by way of purchases.

Not like many conversational commerce instruments that redirect buyers again to an internet site, Wassist retains the expertise contained in the dialog thread, making a extra seamless shopping for journey.

The platform additionally integrates with widespread e-commerce instruments, together with Shopify, Klaviyo, Recharge, and Yotpo.

“Nobody has constructed a very agentic WhatsApp layer for small companies. With three billion customers already on the platform, the mix of WhatsApp and clever commerce brokers represents a serious shift in how companies interact clients,” mentioned Lucia Polverino, Investor at Playfair.

Competitors

Wassist enters an more and more aggressive market the place startups are betting that AI-powered conversations will develop into the subsequent main buyer acquisition channel.

Legacy gamers like Berlin-based Charles (which raised a $20 million Sequence A led by Salesforce Ventures) and world device Wati, backed by $35 million in complete funding, together with a Sequence B led by Tiger World and Shopify, have confirmed that manufacturers need WhatsApp communication. Nevertheless, many of those established platforms rely closely on inflexible, human-built flowcharts. Wassist differentiates itself by deploying dynamic, LLM-driven AI brokers proper out-of-the-box.

Wassist’s differentiation lies in its concentrate on WhatsApp-first commerce. Slightly than treating messaging as a assist channel, the corporate is positioning WhatsApp as the first vacation spot for gross sales, service, advertising, and transactions.

The larger image

The battle for AI-powered commerce is intensifying. OpenAI desires procuring conversations to occur inside ChatGPT. Google desires them inside Search. Meta desires companies and customers to transact instantly by way of WhatsApp. Wassist is betting that manufacturers themselves ought to personal these conversations. 

With greater than three billion customers on WhatsApp globally and powerful adoption already seen in markets reminiscent of India, Brazil, and Mexico, the corporate sees a uncommon alternative to construct the infrastructure layer connecting AI brokers with the world’s most generally used messaging platform.

The query now’s whether or not European and US companies will embrace WhatsApp commerce as rapidly as rising markets have already got. In the event that they do, Wassist may discover itself on the centre of one of many greatest shifts in on-line retail for the reason that rise of cellular procuring.