Goldman-backed secondhand clothing startup ThredUp files for IPO

ThredUp is a fashion resale marketplace that enables individuals to buy and sell clothing for women and children. ThredUp is one of the world’s largest online resale platforms for women’s and kids’ apparel, shoes, and accessories. Today, the Goldman Sachs-backed secondhand clothing retailer made its IPO filing public.

ThredUp was founded by Chris Homer, Dan DeMeyere, James Reinhart, and Oliver Lubin. In 2009, ThredUp set out to make used clothes the new normal and create a more sustainable future for fashion. The company designed a modern resale experience that took the work and risks out of thrift and converted a generation of secondhand skeptics to fans. ThredUp’s mission is to inspire a new generation of shoppers to think of secondhand clothes first.

ThredUp investors include Goldman Sachs, Highland Capital Partners, and Redpoint Ventures. In August 2019, ThredUp raised $175 million in funding, which it said would be used to expand its platform to offer resale clothing services to retailers.

As part of its filing with SEC, the company revealed it has processed over 100 million unique secondhand items from 35,000 brands. It also discloses a bigger full-year loss ahead of a market debut. As people spend more time at home, eCommerce platforms have become some of the biggest beneficiaries of the coronavirus-pandemic world. Other digital resellers, including ThredUp’s peer Poshmark Inc and ContextLogic Inc, the parent company of shopping app Wish, have gone public in recent months.

Here is how ThredUp works. Sellers send clothes directly to thredUP by the bagful, and buyers shop quality-checked items from over 35,000 brands at steep discounts. To power this marketplace, ThredUP built an infrastructure that has recirculated 100 million unique garments via proprietary technology, data, and logistics. thredUP most recently expanded its platform with Resale-as-a-Service (RaaS) to power resale for the world’s leading fashion brands. As a circular fashion pioneer, thredUP is reducing fashion’s impact on the planet and unlocking economic value for consumers and brands alike.

The company also disclosed in the filing that its net loss widened to $47.9 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2020, from $38.2 million a year earlier. However, its full-year revenue has jumped 14% to about $186 million. ThredUp said it would use $500,000 from the IPO proceeds to start an environmental policy function, to advocate the reuse of apparel.