Postmates shuts Mexico City office laying off employees; sources say at least several dozen have been laid off including people across its offices in the US
@sal19 @CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/... Deirdre Bosa / @dee_bosa : Friendly reminder: CEO told @SquawkCNBC a few weeks ago that Postmates has enough capital to get to profitability https://twitter.com/... Teddy Schleifer / @teddyschleifer : More struggles at Postmates as it tries to get out the IPO door. https://www.cnbc.com/... Thanks: @sal19
Context & Ripple Effects
Postmates opened Mexico City as its first international market in late 2017 with 1,000+ merchants and couriers onboard, then folded it into a broader footprint of 385 US and Mexico cities during its 2018 expansion push. Two years on, that growth story has stalled: sources reported talks about being acquired by DoorDash, Walmart, Uber and others in mid-2019, followed by an IPO delay in October.
The office closure and layoffs land just weeks after CEO Bastian Lehmann told CNBC's Squawk Box that Postmates has enough capital to get to profitability, sharpening the gap between the company's public messaging and its cost-cutting as it tries to get out the IPO door.
First-order effects
- Several dozen employees lose their jobs across Postmates' Mexico City office and US locations, ending the company's only international operation roughly two years after launching it.
Second-order effects
- The retreat undercuts the capital-endurance message Lehmann delivered on national TV, giving prospective IPO investors and rival bidders fresh leverage on Postmates' valuation and independence.
Third-order effects
- If delivery platforms must shrink to their home market before going public, international expansion becomes a luxury reserved for consolidated winners rather than a standard growth step for venture-backed couriers.
The trend: Venture-backed delivery startups are trading geographic ambition for a credible path to profitability as public-market scrutiny forces retrenchment before listing.