US-based e-commerce company Etsy priced its initial public offering yesterday at $16.00 per share, the top of its range, meaning the offering will raise approximately $267m when the company goes public today.
The IPO will consist of almost 16.7 million shares, approximately 3.3 million of which will be sold by venture capital shareholders. Media company Hubert Burda, which invested in Etsy’s series D, E and F rounds between 2008 and 2012, is not one of the selling investors.
Etsy, which runs an online marketplace through which users can sell vintage or handmade goods, is valued at about $1.78bn by the offering. It posted a $15.2m net loss in 2014, up from $800,000 the previous year, but at the same time lifted its revenues from $78.5m to $108.7m.
The proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, though the company does plan to use $300,000 to fund a non-profit organisation it has launched called Etsy.org.
Etsy had raised about $91m in venture funding since it was founded in 2005. Hubert Burda took part in its $27m series D round in 2008, its $20m series E round two years later and its $40m series F in 2012, but currently holds less than 5% of the company.
Accel Partners is Etsy’s largest shareholder with a 27% stake, and will sell about 1.5 million shares, making about $24.4m and retaining a 22.4% stake.
Other selling shareholders include Union Square Ventures (a $13.8m return resulting in a 12.6% stake post-IPO), Index Ventures ($11.6m and 10.6%) and Acton Capital ($3.6m and 3.3%). Tiger Global is not selling shares but its stake will be diluted from 7.3% to 6.4%.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are serving as joint book-running managers for the offering, while Allen & Company, Loop Capital Markets and The Williams Capital Group are the co-managers.
The underwriters have a 30-day option to buy a further 2.5 million shares, which would boost the size of the offering to $307m.