As first reported by Recode, food-delivery heavyweight Postmates has raised another $100 million in equity funding ahead of its IPO. The round includes participation from Tiger Global and other current shareholders, as well as a new investor to Postmates, BlackRock.
The new round comes on the heels of Postmates’ $300 million funding round from September 2018, which gave the company unicorn status and a $1.2 billion valuation. The new round kicks that valuation up to $1.85 billion, according to Recode sources. The funding is also just ahead of a projected IPO, which Postmates hired JP Morgan to advise on.
Postmates, which currently serves 550 U.S. cities, says it’s now available in 60 percent of U.S. households and does about 3.5 million deliveries per month. But in the $3.5 billion food-delivery industry, competitors are just as aggressive.
DoorDash, historically Postmates’ most direct competitor, nearly tripled its valuation last year to $4 billion. Uber Eats, meanwhile, was on track to cover 70 percent of the U.S. by the end of 2018. Uber’s IPO was also slated for the first half of 2019, though that may be delayed thanks to a slowing down of the entire IPO market as a result of the partial government shutdown.
No word yet on whether Postmates’ forthcoming IPO will also be affected by the shutdown. In the meantime, the company can look forward to rolling out is delivery robot, Serve, onto the streets of Los Angeles this year.
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