Who Owns Etsy?

Etsy is an American specialty e-commerce company based in Brooklyn, New York, offering handmade goods, vintage items, and craft supplies. The company was founded in Jun 2005 by Rob Kalin, Haim Schoppik, Jared Tarbell, and Chris Maguire.

Consumers can rely on the Etsy platform to access jewelry, bags, clothing, home décor and furniture, toys, art, and craft tools. In Dec 2023, Etsy laid off 225 people, or about 11% of its staff. The job cuts reduced Etsy’s headcount to 1,770 employees. [1]

Etsy is an online seller platform specializing in handmade and vintage items. Etsy requires the products to be at least 20 years old to qualify as vintage on its platform. In 2023, Etsy reported a 3% increase in active buyers to a new all-time high of 92 million.

Etsy reactivated nearly 10 million lapsed buyers and acquired over 8 million new buyers during the fiscal year. The company’s product development launches were 30% higher in 2023 than in 2022. [2]

Etsy stays ahead of competitors by continuously improving its marketplace. The company is refining its Search & Discovery features to consider the visual appeal and product quality to create a more curated and organized shopping environment.

In 2023, Etsy launched a new graph neural network retrieval system to enhance search retrieval capabilities. The feature combines with existing neural networks to improve interactions between listings, delivering better search relevance. [3]

Etsy seeks to position itself as a go-to marketplace. However, most consumers view Etsy as a once-in-a-while online shopping platform for handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. In 2023, Etsy introduced promotional events and value messaging to enhance the buyer experience. The company also launched Etsy Guided Search powered by generative AI to offer creative and specific product suggestions. But who owns Etsy? [4]

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Who is Etsy’s Parent Company?

Etsy.com is an online marketplace owned by Etsy, Inc., a public company based in Brooklyn, New York. Millions of consumers rely on Etsy to access vintage products and handmade items crafted by creative entrepreneurs. In 2023, Etsy had 7.4 million sellers and 95 million buyers on its marketplace. [5]

Etsy is Etsy Inc.’s flagship online marketplace but not the only platform owned by Etsy Inc. The parent company’s portfolio includes Depop, a fashion resale marketplace, and Reverb, a musical instrument marketplace.

Etsy, Depop, and Reverb operate independently but benefit from sharing product, marketing, technology, and customer support expertise. In Feb 2024, Etsy was No. 20 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV). Reverb was #42 ahead of Depop at #51. [6]

CEO Josh Silverman has led Etsy, Inc. since May 2017. Etsy, Depop, and Reverb execs, directors, and officers answer to CEO Silverman. In Dec 2023, the CEO shared a live stream and blog on Etsy’s strategy to drive growth and support its sellers in 2024.

He conveyed Etsy’s plan to reorganize its internal structure to align resources with business priorities. This effort included laying off around 225 Etsy employees. The CEO highlighted the company’s initiatives to support departing workers. [7]

Etsy Inc.’s two-sided online marketplaces connect millions of passionate and creative buyers and sellers globally. The company has introduced several features to help shoppers search for products. In Jan 2024, Etsy launched an AI-powered “Gift Mode” for personalized gift ideas.

Image Credit: Oberon Copeland

Ownership History

Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoppik launched Etsy in 2005 through their small company, iospace. They were joined by Jared Tarbell, an entrepreneur. The four co-founders are the original Etsy owners.

In Jun 2005, Etsy received $400,000 in an angel round. The co-founders used these funds to get the business off the ground. The startup raised $1 million Series A shares in Nov 2006 in a round led by Union Square Ventures. This investment helped Etsy expand its marketplace and offerings. [9]

Etsy had its one-millionth sale in Jul 2017 and received $27 million in Series D funding in Jan 2008. The startup used the funds to acquire its first company, Adtuitive. Co-founders Haim Schoppik and Chris Maguire left Etsy after Rob Kalin ceded the CEO position to Maria Thomas.

In 2012, Etsy raised $40 million in Series F funding. The investment funded Etsy’s strategic acquisitions, including Trunkt, Lascaux Co., Grand St, and A Little Market. Etsy went public via a $100 million IPO in 2015, transferring its ownership to shareholders. [10]

The company launched Etsy Manufacturing in Sep 2015. By 2016, the Etsy marketplace had 1.7 million active sellers and 28.6 million active buyers. Etsy acquired Blackbird Technologies in Sep 2016 to enhance its search and recommendations capabilities.

Josh Silverman was appointed CEO in May 2017 and diversified Etsy’s portfolio beyond Etsy.com through strategic acquisitions. The company purchased Reverb in Jul 2019 for $275 million and Depop in Jun 2021 for $1.63 billion. [11]

Etsy introduced a new feature to prioritize placement in the search results for sellers who included the shipping price in their products’ total pricetag. In 2020, Etsy launched a new Offsite Ads model.

This feature required sellers to pay an advertising fee when a shopper clicks on their products’ online ads and buys the items within 30 days. By Jan 2021, Etsy had 81.9 million active buyers and 4.4 million sellers. [12]

Image Credit: Annie Spratt

Shareholder Structure

Etsy is a wholly-owned Etsy, Inc.’s brand offering an online marketplace for vintage items and handmade products. As of Dec 2023, Etsy, Inc. had 118,492,441 outstanding Stock A shares with one vote. This figure includes 117,464,500 free-float shares. [13]

Etsy, Inc.’s shareholder structure includes institutions, insiders, and individual owners. The e-commerce company has 989 institutional investors. As of Dec 2023, Vanguard Group was Etsy’s largest shareholder, with 11.34%.

This stake represents 13,436,836 Etsy shares. Blackrock was the second-largest shareholder with 7.84%, followed by Capital International at 6.9%, Goldman Sachs at 4.38%, and State Street Corp at 4.06%.

Other top players are Van Eck Associates at 3.9%, Bares Capital at 3.44%, Morgan Stanley at 2.74%, Geode Capital at 2.31%, and ClearBridge Investments at 2.19%. [14]

Etsy’s shareholder structure has several insiders, including executives, directors, and officers. As of Feb 2024, CEO Silverman was Etsy’s largest individual shareholder with 187,237 shares.

CFO Rachel Glaser comes in second with 64,341 shares, followed by COO Raina Moskowitz at 28,208, CTO Rachana Kumar at 14,817, and CO/Principal Nicholas Daniel at 13,138. Other insiders owning Etsy shares are Seymour Kimaria, Ryan Scott, Marla Blow, Merilee Buckley, and Toni Nadal. [15]

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