Cart.com, a provider of ecommerce enablement solutions, anticipates completing an initial public offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 12-18 months, said co-founder and CEO Omair Tariq.
The Houston-based company may raise around USD 100m in a 2024 crossover round prior to a public debut to take out some early investors and fund potential M&A in the US and Europe, the CEO said. The raise would likely be a combination of equity and traditional debt, he added.
Cart.com is talking with potential IPO advisors and underwriters but has yet to mandate any firms, the CEO said.
Tariq acknowledged that Cart.com could be taken out prior to a public listing. The company has been approached by seven corporate development teams from potential Fortune 50 buyers within the last 12 months, he noted.
Cart.com has a revenue run rate of USD 260m and is projecting revenue of USD 300m this year, up from just USD 10m in March 2021, when Tariq last spoke to this news service. The company, which is operating at break even and has a gross margin of 60%, expects to reach USD 1bn in sales within the next three-to-five years, he said.
To date, Cart.com has raised approximately USD 440m in equity and debt funding, most recently with its June 2023 USD 60m Series C valuing the company at USD 1.2bn.
The company has around USD 100m in venture debt from JPMorgan and TriplePoint Capital, Tariq said. Equity investors include Legacy Knight Capital Partners, B. Riley Venture Capital, Kingfisher Investment Advisors, Snowflake Ventures, Prosperity7 Ventures, Oak HC/FT, Citi Ventures, Visa [NYSE:V], PayPal Ventures, Clearco, G9 Ventures, Mercury Fund, Valedor Partners, Arsenal Growth, Moonshots Capital and Scarlet Venture Fund.
Cart.com is an ecommerce-as-a-service provider for third party brands. Its offerings include logistics and fulfillment, multi-channel selling software and marketing services.
Tariq, who is in his late-30s, and Executive Chairman Jim Jacobsen, who is in his late-50s, co-founded the business in October 2020.
Cart.com has more than 6,000 brands on its platform, including Adidas, Under Armour, Pandora, Swarovski, Guess and ADM. The company has close to 1,200 employees and expects closer to 1,600 by year-end, according to Tariq. It has nearly six million square feet of fulfillment space.
In 2022, the company’s software powered more than USD 5bn in gross merchandise value (GMV) and 140 million product listings. It expects around USD 8bn-USD 10bn in GMV in 2024, Tariq said.
Cart.com has completed eight acquisitions, with its largest deal being the January 2022 purchase of FB Flurry, a Dallas-based technology-driven fulfillment and customer care operator for direct-to-consumer brands that Tariq said had approximately USD 65m in revenue.
The company today is most keen to acquire a US-based fintech player focused on receivables financing and with around USD 10m-USD 20m in revenue.
Cart.com plans to expand internationally over the next two years, starting in Western Europe and the UK, where it ideally would acquire a logistics provider with USD 20m-USD 40m in revenue, the CEO added.
The company’s past acquisitions have included a data-feed management solution provider, a marketing consultancy, a provider of SaaS multichannel ecommerce tools, e-commerce storefront software, online store services, digital marketing and creative services, and a moving boxes and supply company.
Cart.com uses law firm Gunderson and accounting firms PwC and EY for external and internal audits, respectively. FT Partners advised on its Series C round.
