Fast-Fashion Giant Shein May Go Public This Year

During the IPO gold rush of 2021, lofty unicorns like Shein and Stripe raised fresh rounds of funding. Bursting at the seams with money, they resisted going public.

It looks like that’s starting to change. According to Reuters, Shein is in talks to raise $2 billion in funding while it makes a game plan for going public in the second half of this year.

Shein has been one of the most-anticipated IPOs for a while now. The fast-fashion online retailer reportedly planned on going public in 2020, but postponed those plans in the wake of rising U.S.-China tensions. IPO talks resumed in 2022, but Shein had to navigate a complex web of regulatory barriers imposed by the China Securities Regulatory Commission in 2021 that made it harder to list on a U.S. stock exchange.

China said earlier this year it will revise its rules to guide companies toward listing offshore, potentially making it easier for Shein to go public in the U.S.

IPO hopes for large, late-stage startups

The private markets took a dive in 2022. Of the companies on The Crunchbase Unicorn Board, 78% set their valuations within the past two years.

And companies are already starting to slash those valuations — Stripe cut its valuation 40% in the span of six months. Klarna’s valuation fell 85%. Shein’s own valuation dwindled by more than 30% when it was, at one point, tied for the third most valuable private company in the world.

Payments platform Stripe is reportedly also considering going public to address employees’ expiring shares in the company, after co-founder John Collison insisted he had no plans to take the company public. Delivery company Gopuff was reportedly planning on going public in the latter half of 2022, but that plan never materialized.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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