Etsy's success story is about to get even bigger; the online arts and crafts marketplace is reportedly nearing an IPO, according to Bloomberg. Sources familiar with the planning claim Etsy hopes to raise $300 million, enough to make its IPO the biggest to come from a New York tech startup in well over a decade. But Etsy isn't susceptible to sudden collapse like many forgotten, failed businesses of the dot-com bubble. Quite the opposite, really.
It appears Etsy is going to IPO: http://t.co/JUEcTdHYX2 This is huge, not just for NYC tech, but for responsible tech companies.
— Anil Dash Dot Com (@anildash) January 14, 2015
The company has turned a profit since 2009 and carefully built an e-commerce empire on the backs of its many sellers, who pay 20 cents to list an item (there are approximately 26 million listings up right now) and hand Etsy a 3.5 percent commission for every homemade craft sold. In 2013, the company earned $1.35 billion in sales. Over half of those came from smartphones and tablets.
Etsy was founded in 2005, and IPO speculation has persisted around the company, one of the shining stars of New York's tech scene. Bloomberg notes that Etsy's IPO could kick off a string of them from New York tech businesses; Gilt and Fab.com are said to be working on reaching the same point. The process could begin as soon as this quarter, with Etsy working alongside Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to hammer out the details.