Etsy files to go public with $100M IPO

Online retailer Etsy is going public. The company today filed its form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, kicking off the process for raising $100 million in an initial public offering and a debut on the Nasdaq, under the fitting symbol ETSY.

“I appreciate your patience with us during this process and we will share more information when we can,” Etsy’s Chad Dickerson wrote in a blog post announcing the news.

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Several other tech companies have gone public in recent months, including Box, New Relic, and Hortonworks. Now Etsy, which started in 2005, is ready.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Allen & Co. LLC are underwriting the IPO.

The company registered a $4.9 million net loss on $108.7 million in revenue in 2014. The prior year, Etsy was actually closer to profitability, with a $796,000 loss on $78.5 million in revenue, according to the filing.

At the end of 2014, New York-based Etsy had 685 employees.

The portion of the filing about competition is particularly interesting. The company calls out Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Pottery Barn, and Target by name, while also mentioning consignment and vintage stores.

“Many of these competitors offer low-cost or free shipping, fast shipping times, favorable return policies, and other features that may be difficult or impossible for Etsy sellers to match,” the company said.

Investors in Etsy include Accel Partners, Breyer Capital, Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures, and Tiger Global.

Here’s some notable metrics from today’s filing:

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• $1.93 billion in “gross merchandise sales,” which, as my colleague Harrison Weber points out, is a big number.
• 54 million members
• 21.8 million app downloads
• 216 million messages sent
• 4.3 billion search pages viewed
• 1.4 million sellers (members who have created accounts and listed an item on Etsy and incurred at least one charge from Etsy in the past year)
• 19.8 million buyers (members who have created their own accounts and have made at least one purchase in the past year)

Daniel Terdiman contributed to this story.