Postmates hopes to go public with IPO

Postmates has filed for an initial public offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter, joining a queue of appdriven companies ramping up to list this year. The food-delivery company submitted its IPO filing confidentially to the Securities and Exchange Commission, said the people who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Postmates could be valued in an offering at more than $1.85 billion, the valuation it got in January when it raised $100 million from existing shareholders and BlackRock Inc., according to the people. The company has picked JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. as its lead underwriters, the people said.

The listing will test public market investors’ appetite for the mobile-ordered restaurant-meal delivery business, which Postmates pioneered less than a decade ago. The business has proven wildly popular, while remaining so far mostly unprofitable. Postmates launched in 2011, after co-founder Bastian Lehmann — now chief executive officer — got the idea to use ride-hailing cars to transport things rather than people. The company started by hiring gig-economy workers to use their cars and bikes to courier everything from flowers to furniture. Postmates quickly realized its sweet spot was shuttling meals for restaurants that couldn’t afford to hire their own full-time delivery staff.