US-based second-hand luxury items reseller The RealReal has filed for a $100m initial public offering that would enable telecommunications firm Novel Group to exit.
Founded in 2011, The RealReal provides an e-commerce store for pre-owned luxury goods such as clothes, handbags, apparel, shoes, jewellery, art and furniture. It has a team of experts that includes horologists, designers and art curators, who verify the value of each item.
The company also operates three brick-and-mortar stores across New York and Los Angeles. It made a $75.8m net loss in 2018 from $207m in revenue.
The IPO comes in the wake of about $335m in funding to date, including $46.7m in a March 2019 series H round led by Greycroft Partners, which invested alongside Great Hill Partners, GreenSpring Associates and PWP Growth Equity, a subsidiary of asset management firm Perella Weinberg Partners.
PWP Growth Equity had previously led a $115m series G round for The RealReal in July 2018 that also featured Sandbridge Capital and Great Hill Partners, valuing it at $745m. Great Hill had provided $50m of series F funding the year before.
Greenspring Associates led The RealReal’s $40m series E round in 2016, which was also backed by Greycroft, InterWest Partners, DBL Partners, Broadway Angels, NextEquity Partners, Springboard Fund, Canaan Partners, E.Ventures and Industry Ventures.
Novel TMT Ventures, Novel Group’s corporate venturing arm, took part in a $14m series B round for the company in 2013, alongside Greycroft, Canaan Partners, E.Ventures, Panarea Capital and various private investors.
Private equity firm Great Hill Partners is The RealReal’s largest shareholder and owns a 14.7% stake. Its other notable investors are Canaan (13%), PWP Growth Equity (11%), InterWest Partners (9.9%), Greycroft (9%), E.Ventures (8.1%) and Greenspring (7.4%).
Credit Suisse, BofA Merrill Lynch, UBS, KeyBanc, Stifle, Cowen and Raymond James are the underwriters for the offering, which is set to take place on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.