IronPlanet Inc., an online seller of used heavy equipment, on Thursday filed for a $92 million initial public offering, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Pleasanton-based company is backed by Silicon Valley venture firms Accel Partners of Palo Alto and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Menlo Park, as well as Caterpillar Inc., Komatsu Ltd. and Volvo.
According to the Kleiner Perkins description of IronPlanet, the company sells hundreds of millions of dollars worth of used construction and agricultural equipment via online auctions from around the world every year.
In the company’s filing, IronPlanet states its online marketplace in 2009 connected more than 1,600 unique sellers to more than 7,600 unique buyers from among 14,500 unique bidders located across 92 countries. Collectively, the buyers purchased approximately 30,000 individual pieces of equipment.
IronPlanet's profit rose to $12.9 million in 2009 from $1.9 million a year earlier while its revenue grew from $35 million in 2008 to $54.7 million in 2009, an increase of 56 percent.
Ted Schlein, a managing partner at Kleiner, serves on the company’s board of directors, as does Arthur Patterson, a general partner at Accel. Other board members include Mark Rubash, the chief financial officer at Shutterfly Inc. and Stephanie Tilenius, vice president of commerce at Google Inc. Also listed as board members are Robert L. Evans, the CEO and president of Churchill Downs Inc., and Roger Siboni, a veteran technology executive.
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