Vinted, the online peer-to-peer marketplace for fashion and lifestyle products, is mulling issuing shares and opening up its capital to external investors before potentially listing on the stock market..
FashionNetwork.com has learnt that the pre-initial public offering (IPO) share sale would reportedly value the Vilnius-based company at $4 billion..
The Lithuanian company has been said to be considering making this move for around six months. A source close to the company told FashionNetwork.com that Vinted’s management and board are currently in talks with the investment bank Goldman Sachs to help facilitate the sale of shares and find prospective investors. Goldman Sachs declined to comment..
Vinted, which was founded in 2008 and launched in the UK in 2020, operates in 15 markets across Europe and North America. It claims to have over 50 million members, with around 2.5 million new users joining each month. The group allows its users to buy, sell and trade new and second-hand clothing, beauty and homeware products – making it similar to platforms such as eBay, Depop and Vestiaire Collective..
In 2021, the group’s turnover reportedly reached 369 million euros ($387 million), up from 154 million euros ($161 million) in 2020. In February of this year, the company announced that it had raised $250 million in a Series F funding round, led by EQT Growth and joined by prior investors Accel, Burda Principal Investments, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sprints Capital and Index Ventures. At the time of its Series F, Vinted’s valuation stood at $3.5 billion..
A pre-IPO sale of shares could help Vinted raise additional capital in order to drive further growth and expansion, invest in new technologies and potentially acquire other businesses in the fashion or beauty sectors. The move could also help Vinted to build a stronger track record as a public company ahead of a potential IPO in the future..
However, Vinted is not the only fashion platform reportedly considering a pre-IPO share sale. Last month, it was reported that online fashion retailer Farfetch is also thought to be planning to raise capital in this way, with some analysts suggesting that it could be preparing to go public as early as 2023..
