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Another of the L.A. area’s promising young e-commerce companies, Etoys, has decided to go public.

The Santa Monica-based online toy retailer filed papers last week to raise as much as $115 million through an initial public offering. It will trade on Nasdaq under the symbol ETYS.

The company was founded in November 1996 by Edward C. Lenk, formerly director of strategic planning at Walt Disney Co. Lenk launched the Etoys virtual store about a year later. And by last December, it had become the No. 5 most-visited online retailer, according to Web research firm MediaMetrix.

But like most e-commerce companies, Etoys is still losing money, about $17.5 million as of the end of last year. And it anticipates those losses to accelerate in the months ahead.

According to its filing, the company plans to use its IPO proceeds to cover advertising and marketing expenses, as well as to develop new technology, automate order fulfillment and add more services to its Web site.

Lead underwriter on the IPO is Goldman, Sachs & Co.