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Zulily CEO Darrell Cavens

Fast-growing daily deal site Zulily is prepping for its initial public offering, with shares expected to price Thursday and begin trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker ZU on Friday.

Demand appears to be growing for the Seattle online retailer, with the company disclosing in a SEC filing today that it plans to sell 11.5 million shares in the $18 to $20 range. That’s up from the previous target set last week of $16 to $18.

The proposed maximum offering price, when including the 1.75 million shares that the underwriters can purchase, is $264.5 million. However, only a portion of the shares being offered by Zulily — 6.3 million — will produce cash for the company.

If the company prices at $19 per share, the company would raise $110 million, with executives, investment bankers and venture capitalists taking the rest.

Zulily’s timing couldn’t have been better, following in the wake of Twitter’s IPO last week. Shares of Twitter have dropped below the $45.10 opening price, but the social media powerhouse still boasts a market value of $22 billion.

And the IPO window remains open for the time being, a window that Zulily appears to be hitting quite nicely. (So far this year, 199 companies have gone public, the third highest total since 2000. On Tuesday, four companies went public and if trend lines hold this could be the best year for IPOs in the U.S. in a decade, according to Renaissance Capital.)

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Source: Renaissance Capital

Zulily’s business— a seller of baby clothes, toys and other accessories — certainly is far different from Twitter. But, even so, it is worth pointing out that Zulily’s annual revenues exceeded those of Twitter last year. The company also showed a slight profit of $155,000 for the nine months ended Sept. 30th.

As we see it, following in the wake of Twitter’s high-profile IPO, may not be the worst thing in the world.

Later this week, we will likely find out how the company does as it makes the leap to the public markets.

The big question: Will Zulily get greeted by Wall Street as the next great online retailer from Seattle, or will it be slapped with the Groupon and Living Social label?

Here’s a look at some of the company’s growth to date.

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