DoorDash’s IPO Moves Step Closer: The Information’s Tech Briefing

DoorDash’s IPO filing on Friday painted a portrait of a company long underappreciated now coming into its own. The filing sets the scene for what should be a heavily sought-after IPO in a few weeks’ time, probably occurring around the same time as Airbnb’s offering, of which we expect to hear more details in the next few days.

DoorDash never had the hype of other gig economy companies such as Uber, which competes with DoorDash in the food delivery market. Co-founder and CEO Tony Xu is about as low profile a top executive as there is for a major company. DoorDash hasn’t raised anywhere near as much money as rivals—$2.5 billion since its 2013 founding, of which $1.6 billion is still in its coffers. Yet this year, it started generating cash. Uber, in contrast, burned through nearly $15 billion in the decade before its IPO last year, raised more in the offering and still doesn’t generate cash.