The public markets have been “hot” this year, but Casper CEO Philip Krim isn’t saying if his company is going to jump aboard.
Closing Bell” on Friday.
Krim said “no comment” when asked about a Reuters report that Casper is seeking to hire underwriters for an initial public offering. Reuters cited people familiar with the matter.
However, he said an IPO is “great for late-stage financing in general and it’s good for companies that are growing quickly, and it’s been a very valuable market for folks.”
Casper — whose investors include actor Leonardo DiCaprio, rapper 50 Cent and retailer Target — recently announced it has raised $100 million in funding, bringing its value to $1.1 billion.
Krim’s comments came on the same day that Lyft debuted on the Nasdaq. The ride-hailing company popped as much as 23 percent on Friday and ultimately settled to modest gains. Last week, Levi Strauss started trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
“The public markets have certainly been hot this year, for sure,” said Krim. “When I think about it for Casper, we are building a generational brand in business, and so we look at public markets as something that could be down the road for us. But right now we are focused on building the business, taking some great products to market.”
The company, launched in 2014, has recently been expanding into brick-and-mortar retail, transitioning from temporary to permanent stores. It made its name by selling one type of memory-foam mattress, but now sells three different kinds.
Krim said the move to physical stores was in response to customers, who want to lie down on the product and talk to someone.
“When we started almost no one was really buying a mattress online. Today maybe one out of nine are buying online,” he said. “So far, customers have flocked to it, so the stores are doing really well.”
— CNBC’s Sara Salinas and Reuters contributed to this report.
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