Sources: ThredUp, an online marketplace for used clothing is planning to go public, with an IPO targeted for early next year that could raise $200M-$300M
ThredUp Inc., an online marketplace for second hand clothing, is gearing up to go public, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Tweets: @katie_roof Tweets: @katie_roof : Sources tell us that ThredUp is talking to bankers about an IPO that could happen early next year. E-commerce has soared in the pandemic https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
ThredUp's IPO plans cap a slow-burn funding arc: an $81M round at roughly a $500M valuation in 2015, then $175M raised across the following year at about $670M per PitchBook — a private valuation that barely moved in four years, which makes the public markets the obvious next source of capital. The timing is the story: e-commerce demand surged during the pandemic, and ThredUp projects the digital resale market reaching $9B in 2020.
The move lands in a crowded window — rival Poshmark confidentially filed its draft S-1 just weeks after this report, setting up a race between the two biggest US secondhand-apparel marketplaces to price first.
First-order effects
- ThredUp is talking to bankers to line up an early-2021 listing targeting a $200M-$300M raise, converting a pandemic-era e-commerce tailwind into balance-sheet capital after years of flat private valuations.
- Poshmark's confidential filing forces both companies onto the same IPO calendar, competing for the same public-market investors' attention and allocation.
Second-order effects
- ThredUp's resale partnerships with Macy's and Walmart give it a retail-distribution story to pitch against Poshmark's consumer marketplace model, sharpening the differentiation battle in the S-1s.
- A successful debut by either player hands the second a pricing benchmark, and pressures remaining private resale platforms to raise or seek exits while the window is open.
Third-order effects
- ThredUp did go on to price at $14 and raise $168M — below the reported $200M-$300M target — before closing up roughly 43% in its Nasdaq debut, suggesting public demand validated the category even at a discounted raise size.
- If the resale IPO cohort performs, secondhand apparel shifts from venture-funded niche to a listed retail category, with department-store and mass-merchant partnerships becoming the standard distribution layer.
The trend: Pandemic-boosted e-commerce is pushing secondhand-apparel marketplaces from flat private valuations into a competitive public-listing window.