Food delivery giant DoorDash files paperwork to go public

DoorDash, the on-demand food delivery company is preparing to go public at a time when its services are in high demand due to the ongoing pandemic.

The company made public its initial public offering paperwork on Friday, revealing that it has generated $1.9 billion in revenue in the first nine months of this year, ending in September. During that time, it incurred losses of $149 million. By comparison, Uber — which runs a competitor delivery service called Uber Eats — has lost $5.8 billion in the same period.

However, during the second quarter of this year and amid the pandemic, DoorDash generated a profit of $23 million. While the company has otherwise been unprofitable, it has shrunk its losses.

“The pandemic has demonstrated how vital we are to the communities in which we operate,” DoorDash said in the paperwork. “With the pandemic, our platform has become a lifeline for merchants whose only revenue options are take-out and delivery, for consumers sheltering in place, particularly vulnerable populations whose health depends on isolating, and for many of the millions of newly unemployed in need of earnings opportunities.”

DoorDash said it will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DASH.

While the food delivery space is crowded, DoorDash — which acquired premium restaurant delivery service Caviar in August 2019 — is the US leader in terms of sales. It surpassed Grubhub for the first time in May, according to analytics firm Second Measure, and remains in that spot.

But as with its on-demand economy peers, DoorDash is not without its fair share of question marks. The company faces battles over its business model and how it classifies its gig workers. DoorDash, along with Uber, Lyft, Instacart and Uber-owned Postmates, recently notched a win in California through the passage of Prop 22, a ballot initiative paid for by the companies that will allow them to continue treating their drivers as independent contractors in the state.

The company had previously announced in February that it had submitted confidential paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to go public.