Rent the Runway Files for IPO

Dive Brief:

Rent the Runway on Monday announced the filing of a Form S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to its previously announced initial public offering. The company will list its stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “RENT.” The number of shares and their price range haven’t been determined, per a company press release.

Like other digital-first retailers joining the public markets lately, the apparel rental retailer has been losing money. Its 2020 net loss widened to $171.1 million, from $153.9 million in 2019; in the first six months of this year net loss reached $84.7 million, per the S-1 file.

In its prospectus, the company counts consumers’ interest in sustainability, the normalization of secondhand clothing and the growth of e-commerce, particularly in apparel, as factors in its favor. The vagaries of the fashion industry and continued pandemic-related pressures are counted among its challenges, and the company warns that it has “a history of losses” and that it “may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability.”