Vancouver Sun

DoorDash seeks up to US$2.8B in its IPO

Food delivery firm joins lineup of December listings

- CRYSTAL TSE, ELLEN HUET and KATIE ROOF

DoorDash Inc., the biggest U.S. food delivery company, is seeking to raise as much as US$2.8 billion in an initial public offering that's part of an end-of-year U.S. listings rush.

The San Francisco-based company said in a filing Monday that it plans to sell 33 million shares for US$75 to US$85 each.

At the top end of this range, the company could be valued at about US$32 billion, taking into account the outstandin­g shares listed in its filing, as well as employee stock options and restricted stock units.

This valuation is an increase from when private investors valued DoorDash at around US$16 billion in June.

Its IPO price is not finalized and could still change depending on demand for its stock on its roadshow with investors over the next week.

DoorDash joins a cadre of consumer-oriented, web-based companies led by home-rental platform Airbnb Inc. that have lined up IPOs for December.

The group includes video-game company Roblox Corp., instalment loans provider Affirm Hold

(DoorDash) revealed a sharp jump in revenue this year and more surprising­ly, a profitable quarter.

ings Inc. and ContextLog­ic Inc., the parent of online discount retailer Wish Inc.

DoorDash has seized on the pandemic-fuelled boom in demand for meals brought to your door, as well as investor exuberance over new stock listings as it moves ahead with its IPO.

When the company revealed its prospectus earlier this month, it revealed a sharp jump in revenue this year and more surprising­ly, a profitable quarter.

For the first nine months of the year, DoorDash had US$1.9 billion in sales, more than triple the US$587 million during the same period last year. Its net loss narrowed to US$149 million, compared with US$533 million for the period in 2019.

DoorDash was briefly profitable in the second quarter of this year — at the height of the stay-athome orders in major U.S. cities — posting US$23 million in profit.

Co-founder and chief executive Tony Xu holds a chunk of DoorDash's Class B super-voting shares, which have 20 votes each. He also has voting control over the rest of the 20-vote shares, which are split between his co-founders, Stanley Tang and Andy Fang.

DoorDash's listing plans — along with the entire app-based service industry — got a boost in November, when California voters approved a ballot measure setting aside a state law requiring gig-economy companies to treat their drivers more like employees than contractor­s.

Despite that victory, the company indicated in its filing that it could face further regulation or litigation that would affect its ability to keep its workers as less costly independen­t contractor­s.

DoorDash's offering is being led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., with Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG, RBC Capital Markets and UBS Group AG.

DoorDash is planning to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DASH.

 ?? CARLO ALLEGRI/ REUTERS FILES ?? DoorDash is going public in an IPO that could value the company at as much as US$32 billion. The San Francisco-based firm has seized on the pandemic-fuelled boom in demand for food delivery, as well as investor exuberance over new stock listings.
CARLO ALLEGRI/ REUTERS FILES DoorDash is going public in an IPO that could value the company at as much as US$32 billion. The San Francisco-based firm has seized on the pandemic-fuelled boom in demand for food delivery, as well as investor exuberance over new stock listings.

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