Postmates Ad Spending Surges Ahead of IPO

When Postmates raised $300 million last September—roughly five months before the company filed confidential paperwork with regulators to go public—the meal delivery startup’s CEO Bastian Lehmann pledged to use the money to grow faster. 

Sure enough, Postmates hit the gas pedal on advertising, one of its primary tools for juicing growth. Between its fundraising last year and this spring, the company spent between five and 10 times more on digital ads than it did in each of the eight months prior to the fundraising, according to two people familiar with the matter. That appears to be an even bigger increase than for other consumer internet companies in the months leading up to their initial public offerings.