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postmates

Postmates Raises $100m in Pre-IPO Funding For Expansion of Online Food Delivery Service

January 17, 2019

Postmates, a San Francisco-based logistics company that operates a network of couriers who deliver goods – mostly food — locally, has closed a pre-IPO $100 million funding round led by BlackRock, Glynn Capital and Tiger Global, upping the company’s valuation to approximately $1.85 billion.

The company is expected to go public sometime in 2019.

“There was great momentum behind the business so we’re super excited to add a little more capital to our war chest,” Kristin Schaefer, Postmates CFO, told Forbes. “With the new funding, we are well positioned to outperform in terms of growth.”

As the creator of on‑demand “anything,” Postmates provides its customers across 400 U.S. cities and Mexico City unparalleled access to more than 250,000 merchants with real-time deliveries.

The new funding comes on the heels of Postmates raising $300 million in September, in a funding round led by Tiger Global Management, with Tiger’s Scott Schleifer joining the Postmates board of directors as part of the deal.

“The transformation of how commerce moves in cities demands that we build the most innovative tools for businesses to keep up and distribute their products to the modern consumer—efficiently and cost effectively,” Bastian Lehmann, Postmates’ CEO and co‑founder, said at the time of the September funding. “Postmates is proud to be the first and largest on‑demand network that is enabling the growth of retail across the country, and this investment accelerates our ability to pair technology with the vitality of our neighborhoods.”

Late last year, Postmates announced it had experienced more than 250% annual growth over the last four years, dramatically improving its gross margins by almost 50%. The company released figures showing it completes millions of deliveries a month, generating over a billion dollars in gross merchandise volume (GMV) annually and driving profitability in 90% of its markets

It also announced its autonomous delivery rover called Serve to deliver goods over short distances.

In 2017, Postmates unveiled “Unlimited,” the on‑demand industry’s first and least expensive subscription model, which saw a doubling of total subscribers in its first year, growing 300% year over year, with 1 in 2 orders on the platform now being placed via Unlimited across multiple markets.

In 2018, the company expanded its selection reach across top US brands with the additions of Walmart, Chipotle, 7‑11, Shake Shack, Blaze Pizza and Sugarfish to its already strong roster of national restaurant and retail partners.

Postmates has used its previous funding rounds to expand its selection advantage, broaden coverage, unleash new point‑of‑sale integration technologies, and deploy state of the art API tools, such as offering white‑glove delivery services to non‑brick and mortar retail partners at scale.

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