Dan Gilbert's StockX is reportedly joining the stable of technology unicorns, gaining a more than $1 billion valuation if talks with a pair of venture capital giants results in a deal.

A "unicorn" in venture-capital parlance is any company that has been valued at $1 billion or more. Last year, 47 companies reached unicorn status including mobile app-based delivery food service DoorDash, rentable scooter firm Bird and recruiting platform ZipRecruiter to name a few.

The Detroit-based "stock market of things" that specializes in reselling highly collectible sneakers and luxury goods is in advanced talks with Hong Kong-based GST Global and Silicon Valley's GGV Capital to secure what would be expected to be hundreds of millions in funding for the 3-year-old startup, Recode reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

A StockX spokeswoman declined Friday to comment to Crain's on the company's valuation. A spokeswoman for Menlo Park, Calif.-based GGV Capital also declined to comment, referring questions to StockX.

StockX would be a beneficiary of eager investors willing to gamble big dollars on companies with fast-growing revenue but no profits, local experts told Crain's.

The e-commerce company co-founded by Quicken Loans Chairman Gilbert and CEO Josh Luber is not profitable, Recode reported, despite doing more than $2 million in daily sales. The company makes money by taking a commission of 8 percent to 9.5 percent on each sale plus a 3 percent processing fee. Luber has repeatedly said publicly that StockX was expected to top $1 billion in sales through its exchange in 2018.

Eye-popping valuations have become more common in recent years as investors are throwing billions at fast-growing, potentially disruptive companies in hopes of building insurmountable leads over competitors, said Chris Rizik, CEO and fund manager of Ann Arbor-based Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, who declined to comment on StockX specifically.

"Raising money and needing money are now more disconnected as many investors are helping companies build a war chest," Rizik said. "The whole theory appears to be find a category you like, pick a winner and put so much money in it to build top-line growth without worrying about profitability that competitors can't catch up."

For example, Japan's Softbank Group Corp. started a $100 billion fund in 2016 on this theory and has invested more than $70 billion. The bank, which includes backing from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, has invested unusually large sums in dozens of companies including ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies, food-delivery company Doordash, shared office space firm WeWork and messaging firm Slack.

StockX may be in such a race with competitors like Culver City, Calif.-based Goat Group. The online sneaker resale platform was valued at $550 million in February after it raised $100 million via an investment from brick-and-mortar retailer Foot Locker. Goat has raised $197.6 million to date, according to a CNBC report. Prior to any new round of funding, StockX had raised $51.5 million to date, according to PitchBook.

New York-based LetGo, not a direct competitor to StockX but with a similar company model, raised $500 million last year in a late-stage round of venture funding.

But profits may be of little consequence to StockX investors if the company is positioning for an initial public offering. According to research by the University of Florida, 84 percent of companies pursuing an initial public offering have generated no profits, The Economist reported. That's up from 33 percent in 2009.

StockX's investors would likely see returns from a successful IPO whether the company had ever generated revenue or not.

Those investors have included Gilbert's Detroit Venture Partners, SalesForce co-CEO Marc Benioff, musician Steve Aoki, Eminem, streetwear designer Don C, actor Mark Wahlberg, and Washington Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, among others.

In September, StockX raised $44 million in a round of venture capital co-led by Silicon Valley venture capital firms GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Battery Ventures.

That round, which helped finance the company's expansion into Europe, represented a sevenfold increase from the $6 million the company raised in February 2017.

Since its website went live in February 2016, StockX has undergone tremendous growth since launching its authentication and stock market-like pricing of luxury sneakers. It now has nearly 750 employees, the majority of whom are based in Detroit inside Quicken Loans' headquarters at One Campus Martius and at its apparel authentication facility in Corktown.

Born from a proliferation of counterfeit sneakers that flooded eBay and other e-commerce websites for years, StockX serves as the resale conduit for sellers to market and sell luxury goods, which are shipped to StockX's facilities in Detroit; Tempe, Ariz.; Moonachie, N.J.; and West London to be authenticated before being sent to buyers.

StockX's model isn't just about being a resale platform. It also aims to use its website to create a sort of IPO-style market for newly released sneakers and other goods.

"We want to work with the brands, the industry, Nike and Adidas and Supreme, etc., to release products directly into the market, to literally IPO them," Luber told the Los Angeles Times for an article published Friday. "And in that scenario, then we really start to play both halves of the retail and resell sneaker markets."