Dive Brief:
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Vancouver, BC, Canada-based retailer Shoes.com said Thursday that it has raised $45 million in funding.
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The money mostly comes from Shoes.com's own shareholders and pegs the company at a valuation of $320 million.
Dive Insight:
Shoes.com is one of Canada’s rare online success stories as the country hasn’t seen a lot of e-commerce yet. The online shoe retailer has seen success lately, with Q1 sales rising 89% year over year.
The funding news could be a sign of plans for the company to go public, with CEO Roger Hardy telling Reuters in March that the company may hold an IPO in 2015. The retailer says it will leverage the funding for further growth, but brushed aside talk of an imminent IPO.
“There is clearly lots of interested in what the company is doing, for now we are focused on growing the company and serving customers,” CEO Roger Hardy told Internet Retailer magazine after the funding.
