CreditCards.com on Friday filed to raise as much as $115 million in an initial public offering.

Austin, Texas-based CreditCards.com lets people search for, compare, and apply for credit cards online. The company’s credit marketplace features card types such as low interest, airline credits, reward programs, cash-back, and others. The site has more than 150 credit card offers from more than 20 credit companies.

Austin Ventures, which manages $3 billion across nine different funds, holds a 65.6 percent stake in CreditCards.com.

There were more than 700 million active credit cards in the United States as of September 2006, according to a General Accounting Office report from that time. U.S. credit card charges exceeded $1.8 trillion in 2005.

CreditCards.com makes revenue from credit card issuers and affiliate marketers who pay the company for either approved or completed applications.

The startup plans to use proceeds from the offering to pay down debt and toward general corporate expenses. CreditCards.com has a debt of $154.8 million, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents.

The company reported revenue of $27.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2007, an increase of 46 percent from the same period a year ago. For the six-month period ended June 30, 2007, CreditCards.com reported it had 5.9 million visitors to its site.

CreditCards.com was founded in December 2005 by Elisabeth DeMarse and affiliates of Austin Ventures.

Credit Suisse and Citi are acting as lead underwriters in the offering. CreditCards.com filed to trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market.