US-based food delivery service DoorDash closed a $400m series F round, which featured the Softbank Vision Fund, the $98.6bn fund managed by telecoms and internet firm SoftBank. It also included Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek and investment firm Dragoneer Investment Group, both of which co-led it. SoftBank is a returning investor, as it had helped DoorDash secure $535m in 2018. This transaction reportedly valued the company at $7.1bn, significantly up from its previous recorded valuation at $4bn in 2018.
Founded in 2013, DoorDash runs a last-mile delivery service that specialises in food deliveries from local restaurants but has expanded to cover other local retail businesses. The company’s users can order items via its app. DoorDash’s offering focus is, however, on the retailer’s rather than the consumer’s end, providing business analytics and services in addition to logistics. It covers 3,300 cities across all 50 US states and Canada and has entered into exclusive partnerships with fast food chains such as Chipotle and Denny’s.
The last-mile logistics space has not remained outside the interests of corporate investors in general. Our GCV Analytics data suggest that the last-mile delivery and logistics space experienced a drop in the number of corporate-backed deals – from 60 in 2017 down to 37 in 2018. However, the total capital estimated in such funding rounds went up $4.3bn to $5.88bn. This suggest growing valuations of emerging businesses in this space, such as evidenced in the case of DoorDash.
