Chrono24 apparently plans IPO

According to a media report, the luxury watch marketplace wants to take the plunge onto the trading floor in order to finance its expansion.

The Chrono24 company is apparently planning its IPO for next year. "A company of our size should always keep open the possibility of going public," founder Tim Stracke confirmed his plan to the Handelsblatt. The move could help the company expand further. The countries of Japan and China would come into question.

Stracke, Michael Krkoska and Dirk Schwartz founded the watch marketplace in 2003, and the Karlsruhe-based company now has 300 employees. According to the start-up, more than 20,000 dealers and private sellers are active on the platform, offering around 500,000 watches. The platform claims to have around 20 million monthly users from 120 different countries. Watch fans can try on their desired watches with virtual reality on their wrists and track their watch collection with the "Watch Collection" function.

Just last August, the company raised around 100 million euros in a financing round. US investor General Atlantic, Aglaé Ventures and an investment company from the Arnault family invested.