Postmates has raised $81 million from investors, the company revealed Thursday through a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The financing values the San Francisco company, founded just four years ago, at more than $400 million. The round was led by Tiger Global Management, the Wall Street Journal reported. Previous investors include prominent angel investor Scott Banister, Spark Capital, Founders Fund, Angel Pad and SoftTech VC.
Postmates is one of many startups in the growing on-demand delivery space, offering through a smartphone app the immediate delivery of items within a city using a network of about 13,000 couriers who work as independent contractors. It is battling for leadership in a crowded sector — everyone from meal delivery service DoorDash, grocery and pet-goods deliverer Instacart, and Uber, which is delivering goods in select areas, wants a piece of the market. But Postmates has competed effectively; it is on track to make $100 million in revenue this year and become profitable in 2016. The company has made 2 million deliveries, TechCrunch recently reported.
Chief Executive Bastian Lehmann told the Journal that the company plans to roll out a new service in August that will charge customers around $1 apiece for deliveries of food and other goods to high-density zip codes at peak times. Postmates typically charges $5 to $20 per delivery depending on the turnaround time and complexity of the order.
Postmates is best-known for food delivery from places like Chipotle, Starbucks and McDonald s, but, like other companies in the space, it is working to add more items to its offerings. It recently struck its first big deal outside of food, a deal with Apple to deliver MacBooks and other products on the same day customers buy them online.
Image courtesy Postmates
