Food Delivery Startup DoorDash Eyes $27b Valuation In Much-awaited IPO

Food delivery startup DoorDash Inc is aiming to raise up to $2.8 billion at a valuation of $27 billion in its initial public offering, setting the stage for one of the most high-profile stock market debuts of the year.

The SoftBank-backed firm plans to sell 33 million shares priced between $75 and $85 apiece, it said in a regulatory filing on Monday, as it takes advantage of a boom in stock markets powered largely by technology-focused companies.

DoorDash’s IPO and a flotation by home rental startup Airbnb are set to light up December, typically a slow period for IPOs, and mark a strong finish to a blockbuster year for new listings.

Companies have raised over $140 billion so far in 2020, making it the biggest year for stock market listings in the past few decades, according to data from Dealogic, which has tracked IPO data since 1995.

DoorDash and rivals Uber Eats, GrubHub Inc and Postmates Inc have benefited from a surge in demand for food delivery services due to widespread COVID-19 lockdowns.

The company posted a surge in revenue growth in 2020 and its first quarterly profit, it disclosed in its IPO filing earlier this month.

A number of big Silicon Valley names including Palantir Technologies, Snowflake Inc and Unity Software have gone public this year, riding on a stock market rally in the second half of the year fueled by stimulus money and hopes of an effective vaccine to end the pandemic.

San Francisco-based Doordash plans to float its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ‘DASH’ on Dec. 9. It had confidentially filed for an IPO in February.

DoorDash, the largest U.S. third-party delivery company for restaurants, has raised about $3 billion to date, and was valued at roughly $16 billion after its most recent funding round in June, according to data platform PitchBook.

Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters for the offering.

Reuters