Stitch Fix, the fast-growing online retailer that ships personalized fashion assortments to customers’ doors, has hired a new chief financial officer who many industry insiders believe will soon guide the company to an IPO.
Stitch Fix has hired a new CFO. An IPO probably comes next.
Paul Yee joins from the parent company of Method soap.
Jason Del Rey has been a business journalist for 15 years and has covered Amazon, Walmart, and the e-commerce industry for the last decade. He was a senior correspondent at Vox.
Paul Yee was most recently the global chief financial officer at People Against Dirty, the parent company of the household product brand Method.
Before that, Yee served as the vice president of finance and investor relations at Peet’s Coffee; he has also worked at Gap and Old Navy. Yee is filling a role that appears to have been vacant since former CFO Michelle Weaver left the company late last year.
At Stitch Fix, Yee is joining a company that appears to be on a fast track to an IPO. The company recently said that it recorded revenue of $730 million in its last fiscal year — just its fifth year of operation — which ended almost a year ago.
Unlike many venture-backed e-commerce startups, Stitch Fix has been profitable for several years, the company recently said. Stitch Fix has raised $42 million in funding, but hasn’t taken on a new investment since 2014.
A spokesperson declined to comment on an IPO, but the company appears to be in a position to file as soon as this year.
Run by founder and CEO Katrina Lake, Stitch Fix is essentially building a modern version of a department store as traditional ones are closing locations left and right.
The company asks shoppers to fill out a style profile and then sends them a box of five articles of clothing and accessories that its algorithm and human stylists have chosen for them. Stitch Fix charges a $20 styling fee for each shipment, but it can be used toward a purchase of anything in the box. Customers ship back what they don’t want at no extra charge.
The company began by selling women’s clothing; it added a men’s offering last year. Stitch Fix sells its own private-label brands as well as other mid-priced labels, and is starting to add higher-end name brands to its women’s service, too.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
