A week after Twitter’s IPO and two days after education company Chegg debuted on the NYSE, Zulily, the daily deals site targeted at mothers, opened on the NASDAQ this morning under the symbol ZU. Things are going well since the company priced 11.5 million shares at $22 each late last night, as shares jumped to a high of $41.32 this morning and presently stand at $38.20.
The company filed its S-1 in early October with the goal of raising $100 million in its IPO. In December 2012, Zulily was valued at $1 billion, and between 2011 and 2012 sales grew from $132.4 to $331.2 million.
It’s a success story among flash sales sites, which have faltered and bred a degree of distrust from VCs in recent years. But it may not be the only one to go public. As Bloomberg reported earlier this summer, there’s the possibility of a future IPO for Gilt Groupe, one of the biggest names in flash sales. Although Gilt’s growth had slowed as it took on too many areas, resulting in layoffs and cut divisions, CEO Michelle Peluso told Bloomberg that the company still sees flash sales as its core.
Zulily is profitable – although as others will point out, just barely so – and raised a total of $369M from investors like Maveron, Trinity Ventures, August Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, and most recently Andreessen Horowitz.
This isn’t the Zulily founders’ first time at the IPO rodeo: that was Blue Nile, the online jewelry retailer, back in 2004.
[Image from Zulily]
Read more : Zulily Shares Pop 82% Above IPO Price
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