Boston-based ecommerce company Wayfair might have its initial public offering sooner than expected.
The firm’s leadership is scheduled to meet with several banks over the next few weeks about managing the IPO in the first half of the year, according to one of Bloomberg’s sources close to the meetings.
In January, the home décor company announced that it had garnered nearly $1 billion in revenue – a growth of 55 percent – in 2013.
“We’re fortunate to be the leader in a big agenda grounded in a reality that is a real opportunity,” Wayfair Co-founder and CEO Niraj Shah told BostInno in a conversation.
Also last month, news broke that Wayfair raised an eye-catching $150 million in funding at a valuation of $2 billion, according to Reuters. Mutual fund giant T.Rowe Price, which also invested in Twitter back in the day, led the round.
Shah declined to comment on the company’s recent round and IPO rumors. He did, however, state that the company’s new CFO Michael Fleisher will aid the company when the time comes to post Wayfair’s IPO.
“When we think about issuing our public offering, bringing someone who has such experience in bringing two companies public, is an advantage,” said Shah.
Fleisher ushered Warner Music Group and Gartner through their initial public offerings in 2005 and 1993, respectively.
In addition to a potential IPO, Wayfair has a few other tricks tucked up its sleeve for the next few months.
“We’re launching a new brand in the not so distant future,” Shah told BostInno, elusively noting that there are “a series of things we are going to roll out in the next four to six weeks.”
Despite being bootstrapped for 10 years after its launch, Wayfair tops the list of Boston’s most funded tech firms, with around $350 million raised in total. The company last raised in December 2012, landing $36.3 million from local VCs and returning investors Battery Ventures and Spark Capital, as well as HarbourVest Partners and Great Hill Partners.
The ecommerce company made the choice in 2011 to unite all of its furniture and home design brands, like Joss and Main, under the Wayfair name. For the last year, Shah said that the company has been focused on revving up marketing and branding efforts (like this adorable commercial) to boost its brand. Shared the chief executive:
What I’m most excited for is the belief we have that for homegoods, the online experience is revolutionizing what our customers can do. They’re not being constrained by the walls of a store … and that there is even more things we can be doing for those customers in return.
