• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

What Rent the Runway’s IPO filing says about the business of loaner garments

October 5, 2021 by David Barret Leave a Comment

Good news, everyone: The Q4 IPO cycle is now well and truly underway.

For those of us who prefer to read IPO filings to funding announcements, new S-1 documents from Udemy, Rent the Runway and others just touched down. But we care the most about those two, as they are listings from venture-backed companies that we’ve covered here at TechCrunch over the years.


The Exchange explores startups, markets and money.

Read it every morning on Extra Crunch or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday.


This morning, we’re going to dig into the core business results of each company, discussing how they make money and the state of their recent results. This entry will dive into Rent the Runway; afterward, we’ll dig into Udemy. Today is a rare two-Exchange day. You are welcome.

Off the top, I’m incredibly curious what impact the pandemic had on Rent the Runway’s numbers — after all, no one needed a loaner gown for months and months — and how strong its gross margins have proved over time. I also want to understand how expensive it is to buy all the clothing items that the company needs to operate, and how those costs are accounted for in its reporting.

While private, Rent the Runway raised hundreds of millions of dollars in equity funding and the odd debt round. The company’s most recent major investment was a $125 million Series F announced in March 2019. The company was valued at a flat $1.0 billion after that transaction, Crunchbase data indicates. Fidelity, Bain Capital Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, Kleiner Perkins, TCV and others invested in the company during its private life. Let’s see how it has performed.

Rent the Runway’s IPO filing

You are likely familiar with the Rent the Runway model: It buys expensive clothing aimed at women, renting the pieces out to subscribers and customers for a fraction of their retail price. The idea is that customers want a more varied wardrobe and want to wear items that they would not be able to afford on their own. Customers can subscribe to the company’s service or rent individual items piecemeal.

By lucky happenstance, your servant got his first real tour of the Rent the Runway product a few days ago, so I am moderately read-up on how it works in practice. Rent the Runway has a truly epic selection of items, and frankly shopping for designer items at rental prices is good fun.

But is it a good business? It’s a little hard to say, but I am not leaning toward yes.

COVID-19 was not kind to Rent the Runway. This makes sense. Clothes are for wearing places, and the pandemic kept most of us at home. Naturally, then, revenues at the company declined during its fiscal 2020, a 12-month period that ended January 31, 2021:

Source Link What Rent the Runway’s IPO filing says about the business of loaner garments

David Barret
David Barret

Related posts:

  1. Qatar’s Emir discusses Afghanistan with U.S. secretaries of state and defense
  2. Exclusive-Allianz under investigation in Germany over investment funds
  3. Australia reports 1,882 COVID-19 cases as police quell protests
  4. SoftBank’s Marcelo Claure is coming to Disrupt next week

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Why Aren’t Full Photos Of The Milky Way Real? A NASA Analyst Explains The Obvious
  • Freaky Ratfish Have Teeth Growing Out Of Their Foreheads, And They Use Them For Love
  • The Largest Turtle Ever Known To Have Lived Was An Absolute Unit
  • “It Literally Leapt Out Of The Rock At Us”: How Violent Storms Led To The Extraordinary Preservation Of Baby Pterosaurs
  • This Is The Reason Why Earth’s Core Exists, And It’s More Interesting Than You Might Think
  • Over 11 Million Years Of Evolution, Eyeless Cavefish Developed Blindness Independently Many Times
  • Tropical Mammoths, Dazzling Brain Map, And Perfectly Preserved Pterosaurs
  • What Is Actually In Pumpkin Spice? Spoiler: It Isn’t Pumpkins
  • Voyager 1 Launched 48 Years Ago Today, So NASA Shares Archival Footage Of Carl Sagan To Celebrate
  • Infrasound: The Noise That Travels Further Than Any Other On Earth
  • Ready, Set, Chonk: Fat Bear Week 2025 Is About To Begin. And Yes, It’s Early
  • Artificial Sweeteners Like Aspartame Linked To 1.6 Years Of Extra Brain Aging In 8-Year Study
  • The Largest Mammal To Ever Live Made African Elephants Look Incredibly Small
  • West Coast States Form New Health Alliance To Give Vaccine Advice, Saying CDC Is Now “A Political Tool”
  • Shakespeare’s Skull Is Missing
  • Is One Type Of Drinking Water Better Than Another?
  • What Food Did Neanderthals Eat? The Real “Paleodiet” Wasn’t As Meaty As You Imagine
  • Typhoon Tip: The Largest Storm Ever Could Have Swallowed Half Of The Continental US
  • Is Acrylamide Really Bad For You?
  • Macaws Learn From Watching Other Macaws Interact – A Kind Of Imitation We Thought Was Unique To Humans
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version