Sources: Postmates, which planned to go public this year, has recently told advisers that it is delaying its IPO due to market conditions
Context & Ripple Effects
Postmates' road to the public markets has been long and winding: it confidentially filed for an IPO in February 2019 after a January $100M raise at a $1.85B valuation, and as recently as July was weighing a sale, with talks reported with DoorDash, Walmart, and Uber. Today's delay to advisers, citing market conditions, effectively answers that fork in favor of staying private — for now — and keeps the acquisition conversations implicitly alive as the fallback.
First-order effects
- Postmates' planned 2019 listing is off the near-term calendar, leaving the company dependent on private capital and its $1.85B valuation untested by public markets.
Second-order effects
- With the IPO path frozen, suitors like DoorDash, Walmart, and Uber regain leverage: Postmates' board must weigh a discounted sale against waiting out volatile markets, echoing its 2016 caution about avoiding too high a valuation target.
Third-order effects
- If market conditions keep window-shopping unicorns out of listings, delivery-sector consolidation shifts from public-market exits to strategic acquisitions — private valuations become negotiating positions rather than price discovery.
The trend: Late-2010s on-demand delivery startups are treating the IPO as a conditional option rather than a milestone, with acquisition talks as the standing alternative whenever market windows close.