Rent the Runway is the latest digitally native retailer that is seeking to enter the public arena.
The fashion rental giant on Monday filed for an initial public offering seeking to raise $150M, after confidentially filing for a listing in July. The number of shares on offer and their price range has not yet been determined. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq exchange with the ticker symbol “RENT.”
Rent the Runway was hit hard by the pandemic as wedding and other dress-up events were canceled and women put wardrobe refreshes on hold. It subsequently closed its brick-and-mortar locations, updated its subscription plans and entered the resale market.
Similar to other digital-first retailers such as Warby Parker and Allbirds that have filed to go public in recent months, Rent the Runway’s filing revealed that it has been losing money. The filing also revealed an uneven recovery from the pandemic to date. Rent the Runway’s revenue fell to $157.5M in 2020, from $256.9M in 2019. Its net loss totalled $171.1M in 2020, compared to a net loss of $153.9M in 2019.
