Dive Brief:
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Ottawa-based marketplace company Shopify has made its initial filing to go public, saying in its F-1 filing that it expects to raise $100 million in its initial public offering.
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That’s a low number considering the company has already raised $122 million and is valued at $1 billion, and likely just a placeholder.
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The marketplace company, which develops software for retailers to have stand-alone or marketplace-based storefronts, will list on the New York Stock Exchange as “SHOP” and on the Toronto Stock Exchange as “SH.”
Dive Insight:
Shopify has always put its funds to good use, improving its capabilities and strategy to get to this point. As it prepares for its IPO, a major competitor, Amazon Webstore, is shifting down and preparing to close. The company has enabled more than 120,000 stores globally to have e-commerce storefronts that include plug-in, mobile, and POS, as well as marketing tools, inventory management, and analytics. Part of its growth can be attributed to CEO and co-founder Tobi Lütke’s attitude toward commerce in general.
“Human history is the history of conducting commerce,” he told the Globe and Mail. “It started with trade caravans. Probably language developed because people needed to trade goods with each other.” When ways to conduct commerce changed, “that’s when civilization changed. We are engaged in making commerce more seamless.”