Angie’s List Files for $75 Million IPO

Angie’s List, which helps online consumers research, hire and review local repairmen for homes and cars, has filed for an IPO today, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company said in its S-1 that it plans to raise about $75 million to pay for advertising and general coporate expenses. It may also use a portion of the proceeds to make acquisitions or obtain rights to complementary technologies or products.

Underwriters include Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Allen & Company, Janney Montgomery Scott, Stifel Nicolaus Weisel, Oppenheimer & Co., ThinkEquity, RBC Capital Markets and CODE Advisors.

Unlike many consumer services that have gone public recently, such as LinkedIn and Pandora, Angie’s List charges all participants a membership fee.

In 2010, members paid $25.1 million in fees, and service providers paid $33.9 million, for revenues totaling $59 million. Last year, the company reported a net loss of $27 million. A majority of its expenses are from marketing costs.

For the first six months of 2011, it lost $25.8 million on revenues of $38.6 million. In the first half of 2010, it lost $11 million on revenues of $27.4 million.

It said that for the six months ended June 30, it had 821,769 members, and had nearly 20,000 service providers participating. In the same period, the average membership renewal rate was 78 percent, but marketing costs for each new paid membership acquired totaled $92 apiece.

The company has $32 million in cash on its balance sheet.

The company says that one of its risk factors is its heavy dependence on marketing to acquire new memberships. It said that, based on analysis, it believes that more members will drive more revenues as penetration increases in a particular market. However, the long-term impact of heavy marketing expenses on the company is unknown.