Online marketplace Fruugo to float on London's AIM market

UK-based online marketplace Fruugo has announced plans to float on AIM, a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange.

The company, which sells fashion, beauty and accessories among other categories, said the objective of the float is to raise its funding and profile “to fuel a significant increase in the rate of growth of new retailers using Fruugo”.

It currently hosts approximately 1,400 retailers on its platform, which operates in 42 countries, across 28 languages and 31 currencies.

Fruugo will be joining fashion heavyweights In The Style, Asos and Boohoo which are already listed on AIM.

It said it will use the proceeds of its initial public offering (IPO) to increase the speed and automation of onboarding the new retailers onto its platform, enhance the user experience for shoppers, and improve CRM initiatives to increase operating performance.

Fruugo eyes early October float

The placing will consist of newly issued shares, as well as existing shares held by current shareholders. It expects the admission to occur in early October.

Executive chairman and co-founder Dominic Allonby hailed the company’s “very strong growth and strategic progress in recent years”, and said he was excited to enter the next chapter of the company’s growth.

“Fruugo’s mission is simple: to enable shoppers everywhere to buy from retailers anywhere, and to enable retailers to access international demand for their products that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do,” Allonby said in a release.

“Fruugo’s proprietary technology and SEO expertise, in combination with the huge range of product categories available through its platform, means that Fruugo is able to continually tap into worldwide consumer demand for sought after products and categories. The business is fast-growing, asset-light, and built for scale.”