Poshmark files for IPO saying it became profitable this year

[SAN FRANCISCO] Poshmark, an online resale marketplace for second-hand clothing, filed for an initial public offering (IPO), disclosing revenue gains and a profit during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Redwood City, California-based company in its filing Thursday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission listed the size of the offering as US$100 million, a placeholder that will likely change.

More than 70 million Poshmark users have sold more than 130 million items with a combined value exceeding US$4 billion, the company said in its filing.

For the nine months ended Sept 30, Poshmark said it had net income of US$21 million on revenue of US$193 million, compared with a net loss of US$34 million on revenue of US$150 million during the same period in 2019.

Poshmark's filing, which said in September that it had filed confidentially with the SEC to go public, comes amid a year-end flurry of IPOs by consumer-oriented internet-based companies. The parent of online discount retailer Wish raised US$1.1 billion on Monday, on the heels of DoorDash Inc.'s US$3.14 billion IPO the previous week and Airbnb's US$3.83 billion offering including so-called greenshoe shares.

Those listings helped push 2020's IPO total to an all-time high of more than US$176 billion on U.S. exchanges, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In December alone, 64 companies raised more than US$23 billion in IPOs, a record for the month.

THREDUP IN LINE

The IPO line-up for 2021 already includes high-profile consumer companies including online video-game company Roblox Corp, online dating service Bumble, grocery delivery platform Instacart Inc. and online mortgage lender Better.com, Bloomberg has reported. Used-clothing platform ThredUp Inc. has also filed confidentially for a listing.

Founded by chief executive officer Manish Chandra, Poshmark provides a marketplace to buy and sell high-end clothes harvested from closets. The company, whose website allows shoppers to exchange comments on products, has been at the forefront of the online shopping trend known as "social commerce." Poshmark's investors include Mayfield, Menlo Ventures and Inventus Capital, according to its filing.

The company announced last year that tennis champion Serena Williams was joining its board. It also said it was expanding its marketplace to include home decor.

The offering is being led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group and Barclays. The company plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol POSH.

BLOOMBERG