On-demand meal, clothing and everything else delivery is startup culture’s latest boom market, and with so many new players throwing their hats and temperature-controlled carrier bags into the ring, it’s becoming harder and harder for established companies to keep their head start.
DoorDash, however, took a big step in maintaining that lead with an announcement from CEO Tony Xu. In a Series C funding round led by Sequoia Capital that included Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures, DoorDash raised $127 million to maintain its lead as more and more competitors try to beat it to new regions and cities around the world.
“This new round of capital will help us further our mission of connecting communities around the world through last-mile delivery,” Xu said in a blog post. “We plan to continue investing in our core technology to build the first software-enabled logistics company. We will continue to grow and expand our operations, both across the U.S. and beyond. And we will build out our support and operations teams to continue to delight our customers by providing the very best delivery experience every single time they place an order.”
The Wall Street Journal explained that the $127 million is a long time coming for DoorDash. Sequoia had originally submitted a valuation of $1 billion to investors around October, but a contrarian movement that pushed back against an unicorn-esque valuation saw the investment group eventually drop that figure to $700 million. To Xu, this was still an accomplishment, indicating that his particular delivery service is “growing fast, while building a scalable business that is built to last.”
A DoorDash spokesman told WSJ that the delivery service is taking in more revenue than it’s losing in markets it’s only now emerging into, and if PR professionals can be trusted, DoorDash, Xu and Sequoia have nothing to worry about.
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