Seattle-based Zulily's offering sold 11.5 million shares at $22 each, raising $253 million in total, with $140 million going to the coffers of the e-commerce company.
"The business has been profitable; we've been cash-flow positive for the past few years, says CEO and founder Darrell Cavens. "That's one of the pieces of the story that's different than what's out there. We've got growth paired with the bottom line."
Zulily has seen its revenue soar. For 2012, it reported $331 million in revenue, up 132% from a year ago. For the first nine months of 2013, it reported $438.7 million in revenue. Zulily is getting 45% of its orders from mobile.
Zulily's homepage
The e-commerce site refreshes its offers daily with promotions on curated items it says can run 50% below retail. The company has a merchandising team of 300 employees charged with finding new products at discount.
Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos has made no secret of ambitions for becoming an everything store, entering just about every market. The company's approach of delivering products aimed at kids is no different. The e-commerce giant acquired Diapers.com for $545 million in 2010, a deal that came after its $1.2 billion purchase of Internet shoe retailer Zappos.com.
"I think our model is really different. We're out there finding boutique products and putting them out there," says Cavens.
The company's customer base has been swelling. As of September 2013, it counted 2.6 million active customers, up from 1.6 million active customers in 2012 and 791,000 in the year before. The site was launched in January 2010.
Shares of Zulily trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "Zu."
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