Rent the Runway, a US-headquartered fashion rental service backed by media group Advance Publications and payment services firm American Express, filed to float on the Nasdaq Global Select Market yesterday.
Founded in 2009, Rent the Runway runs an online platform which allows users to rent fashion items for short periods of time through a subscription service. It has set a $100m placeholder target for the offering having filed confidentially nearly three months ago.
The company had more than 125,000 subscribers as of the end of July this year and made an $84.7m net loss from $80.2m in revenue for the six months leading up to that point.
Rent the Runway last raised money in May this year according to the IPO filing, closing an $81.2m series G round that included Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund, Highland Capital Partners, Bain Capital Ventures and TCV.
Bain Capital Ventures, TCV and Highland Capital had previously contributed to a $135m series F round that closed in January 2020, the filing states.
The company announced in March 2019 it had raised $125m from Franklin Templeton Investments, Hamilton Lane Advisors (on behalf of New York State Common Retirement Fund) and funds and accounts advised by T Rowe Price at a $1bn valuation, but the filing only mentions an $81m round the previous month.
Rent the Runway said it had previously secured $212m in funding, including $60m in series E financing from Advance Publications, investment and financial services group Fidelity, Bain Capital Ventures, TCV and Highland Capital in 2016.
Advance Publications, Bain Capital Ventures, Highland Capital and TCV had provided $60m in series D funding for the company two years earlier at a $520m valuation, the first three having joined American Express, Novel TMT Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in a $24.4m series C round in 2013.
Neither corporate owns a stake sized at 5% or over, according to the IPO filing. Bain Capital Ventures holds 18.6% of Rent the Runway’s shares, Highland Capital 11.6%, TCV 8.9% and Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund 3.9%.
The company has appointed Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Barclays Capital lead book-running managers for the IPO, Credit Suisse Securities (USA), Piper Sandler, Wells Fargo Securities, KeyBanc Capital Markets and JMP Securities joint book-running managers and Telsey Advisory Group co-manager.
