Online marketplace Etsy closed its first day of trading at $30 per share after going public yesterday, up 86 per cent from its initial price.
Shares opened on the NASDAQ yesterday at $31, up 94 per cent from the initial set price of $16 per share. The company raised over $287 million by selling 16.7 million shares before trading, valuing the company at $1.8 billion. The company is now worth more than $3.5 billion.
While Etsy has yet to turn a profit, it has seen year-over-year growth for the past few years, reaching $195.59 million last year from $74.6 million in 2012. At the end of 2014 it had 1.4 million active sellers and 19.8 million active buyers.
The company has built its brand on a small craft, artisanal kind of identity, but an IPO is likely to shake any company up. It remains to be seen how the company will try and compete with larger rivals Alibaba, eBay and Amazon while still remaining true to its community ethos.
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