DoorDash files for IPO
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
DoorDash filed Friday for its IPO, which is expected to price in the window between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The state of play: There's a lot more noise than signal because of the pandemic.
- Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are co-leading the offering, with a total of 12 banks listed. DoorDash plans to trade on the NYSE under ticker symbol DASH.
- There are no equity grants or purchase programs for Dashers. The company did yesterday announce a $200 million workforce development program that will include around $12 million in cash bonuses.
- DoorDash had raised nearly $3 billion in VC funding, most recently at a $16 billion post-money valuation. Shareholders include: SoftBank Vision Fund (24.9% pre-IPO stake of Class A shares), Sequoia Capital (20.4%), and GIC (10.5%). CEO Tony Xu holds 41.6% of Class B shares. SoftBank Vision Fund has invested at least $680 million.
By the numbers: DoorDash reports a $149 million net loss on $1.9 billion in revenue for the first nine months of 2020, versus a $533 million net loss on $587 million in revenue for the year-earlier period. It did turn a $23 million profit in Q2 but went back into the red in Q3.
- For context, rival Uber Eats lost money in Q2 2020.
- DoorDash's total costs and expenses doubled year over year for the nine-month period, while adjusted EBITDA moved from negative $372 million to positive $95 million.
- Total orders increased from 181 million to 543 million, while there are over 390,000 merchants and one million "Dashers" on its platform. As Axios' Felix Salmon messaged me via Slack: "Imagine if those people had to be counted as some kind of employees."
- DoorDash has $1.6 billion of cash on its balance sheet as of Sept. 30.
Yes, but: DoorDash acknowledges that COVID-19 lockdowns played a significant role in its year-over-year growth, and says "we expect the growth rates in revenue, total orders, and [marketplace revenue] to decline in future periods."
What's next: DoorDash isn't the only food delivery economy company planning to go public. Grocery-focused Instacart just picked Goldman Sachs to lead a 2021 IPO at upwards of a $30 billion valuation, per Reuters.
- And close on Doordash's heels should be filings from Airbnb, Affirm, Roblox and Wish.
The bottom line: The numbers all seem to be moving in the right direction, but we'll need several more quarters before we can see DoorDash clearly through the coronavirus fog.
