DoorDash closes at $189.51, up 85% from its $102 pricing, after popping to $182 as the shares began trading, giving a valuation of $60.2B
turning $680m to $11.5b based on today's opening price. https://www.cnbc.com/... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : What I like most about the DoorDash founding story is that it bucks the entrepreneurial myth of “scratching an itch” and instead it was just some Stanford MBAs & former Facebook interns literally searching for small business problems to solve. https://twitter.com/... Very Tired Alex / @alex : at $130/share, SoftBank's stake in DoorDash is worth ~$8.2B, from $680M investment https://www.wsj.com/... Edward Ongweso Jr / @bigblackjacobin : hmmm ok i am done writing my uber screed, time to relax and look at news and unw— https://www.cnbc.com/...
CNBCJessica Bursztynsky
Context & Ripple Effects
DoorDash's debut caps a two-year valuation climb that the related coverage tracks step by step: a $535M SoftBank-led Series D at $1.4B in 2018, back-to-back 2019 rounds at $7.1B and $12.6B, then a filing range of $75 to $85 that was raised twice before bankers settled on $102. Even after that aggressive $102 pricing above the $90–$95 range, the stock opened near $182 and closed at $189.51 — an 85% first-day pop that values the company at $60.2B.
The company behind the number is the one [[a:947757|SoftBank's capital and a suburb-first strategy turned into the biggest US food delivery app]] after years as a struggling startup. The pop is therefore also a verdict on that bet: SoftBank's $680M position was worth roughly $8.2B at $130 a share and about $11.5B by the opening print.
First-order effects
SoftBank converts its $680M DoorDash investment into a stake worth roughly $11.5B at the opening price — the kind of markup that flows straight into its portfolio marks.
DoorDash raises meaningfully more per share than planned, since the $102 price sits well above both the original $75–$85 filing range and last week's $90–$95 range.
Second-order effects
Earlier backers who bought into the $7.1B and $12.6B rounds now hold positions marked at more than four times their entry valuations, giving DoorDash a $60.2B currency for hiring, retention, and any consolidation moves in US delivery.
Rival delivery platforms face a competitor that just banked an 85% premium to its IPO price, sharpening pressure on them to demonstrate comparable growth or pursue their own listings to keep pace.
Third-order effects
An IPO priced above two successive ranges that still pops 85% revives the underpricing debate: issuers and their banks systematically leave first-day gains on the table when demand runs hot.
If the pattern holds, US food delivery consolidates around a single dominant consumer brand whose scale was built on SoftBank capital and suburban density — raising the bar for any challenger's path to relevance.
The trend: Pandemic-era demand is letting delivery platforms price IPOs above repeatedly raised ranges and still double-digit-pop on day one, minting record private-to-public markups for late-stage backers like SoftBank.
On 5/29/13 (my birthday!), I filed to incorporate Palo Alto Delivery Inc., later renamed DoorDash Inc. It's mostly not my story to tell. But I'll share a bit today about how it started. My goal is to give aspiring entrepreneurs a window into one founding story.
fwiw: Will be interesting to see how large the retail float is on DoorDash. Unity also had a big pop, and bankers said both it and Snowflake were popping on Robinhood effect.
What I like most about the DoorDash founding story is that it bucks the entrepreneurial myth of “scratching an itch” and instead it was just some Stanford MBAs & former Facebook interns literally searching for small business problems to solve. https://twitter.com/...
Everyone loves to hate on the SoftBank Vision Fund. But it's only fair to give the fund credit when credit is due. DoorDash is a huge win for them — turning $680m to $11.5b based on today's opening price. https://www.cnbc.com/...
No matter what you think of $DASH valuation & prospects (I have plenty of thoughts) it's an example of a startup that learned to pinch pennies & grow more efficiently than a big co. that started a new line of business to compete w/the startup. In this case, Uber.
The DoorDash IPO pricing may be crazier than its order fees, from $16B in the private markets this summer to close to $60B where it's currently trading, and now its three cofounders are officially billionaires. https://www.forbes.com/...
Congrats to all the early $DASH investors! Great company.... I hadn't ever heard Tony Xu speak until this morning on CNBC. That's how under the radar this company has been
As we wait for DoorDash to open (now indicated to be up 84%)...two thoughts: (1) This company used a hybrid auction with the goal of limiting the day-one pop (2) Today's DASH trading may encourage Airbnb to be more aggressive with their pricing tonight
this is almost double their opening price im old enough to remember when the chatter was “how is doordash going to live up to it's sky-high valuation b/c of the Softbank investment” COVID really did change everything https://twitter.com/...