Etsy, The Online Marketplace For Homemade Crafts, Files For $100 Million IPO

Etsy, the online marketplace for homemade crafts, filed for its initial public offering on Wednesday. The Brooklyn-based company, which takes a cut of every item sold through its platform, said it is hoping to raise $100 million through the offering.

The startup, which will trade on the Nasdaq under the "ETSY" symbol, is popular among users who are looking to purchase items made by individuals and small businesses. Etsy said it has a community of 1.4 million active sellers and 19.8 million active buyers. Sellers pay Etsy $0.20 for every item they list and give the company a 3.5 percent cut of every good sold through the service.

Etsy, which was founded in 2005, generated more than $195 million in revenue last year, up 57 percent from 2013, but the company has yet to post a profit. Last year, the marketplace had a net loss of more than $15 million, up from less than a million the previous year.

Among its risk factors, Etsy faces "intense competition" from others in the e-commerce space, including Amazon, Alibaba and eBay, and "may not be able to compete effectively," the company said in its filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.