DoorDash’s IPO Delivers as Shares Surge in Market Debut

DoorDash has by no means turned an annual revenue, however a surge in demand throughout the Covid-19 pandemic has helped to rework the San Francisco firm. Income and orders at DoorDash greater than tripled this summer time and fall, in contrast with the yr earlier than, as shoppers bored with prepping meals at house and ordered extra meals for supply.

The outcome led the corporate’s valuation to leap to roughly $71.eight billion, as of the shut Wednesday, from $15 billion earlier within the yr.

Based in 2013 by Tony Xu, who emigrated from China along with his mother and father when he was 5 years previous, DoorDash now should defend its almost 50% U.S, market share within the aggressive food-delivery trade and stoke additional development to fulfill heightened shareholder expectations. The corporate believes the benefit by which diners can get meals delivered received’t be a fad, however demand may sluggish as vaccines for the coronavirus are distributed and patrons return to restaurant eating rooms they’ve been avoiding.

“As soon as individuals get used to a behavior, they have a tendency to keep it up. We noticed this with e-commerce, we noticed this with reserving journey over the web,” Mr. Xu, a 36-year-old who earned an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate Faculty of Enterprise, stated in an interview.

DoorDash’s shares opened Wednesday afternoon at $182 on the New York Inventory Change, 78% above its higher-than-expected preliminary public providing worth. The inventory ended buying and selling Wednesday at $189.51, giving it a market worth that surpasses the mixed value of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., Domino’s Pizza Inc. and Dunkin’ Manufacturers Group Inc.

DoorDash has educated its efforts on suburban areas, permitting the corporate to profit partially as a result of households there have a tendency to position bigger orders. The corporate managed nearly half of the U.S. food-delivery market as of mid-October, up from one-third the yr earlier, giving it a lead over Uber Applied sciences Inc.’s UBER 1.47% Eats service, Grubhub Inc. and different rivals.

The corporate would be the solely public stand-alone U.S. food-delivery firm after Grubhub agreed to be acquired in June. Uber Applied sciences not too long ago purchased rival Postmates Inc. for $2.65 billion, in a transfer geared toward serving to it in supply.

DoorDash has targeted on boosting the variety of eating places shoppers can select from its app and expanded into grocery deliveries throughout the pandemic. Mr. Xu stated deliveries grew to become sooner throughout the well being disaster, partially due to much less visitors on streets and since DoorDash grew to become extra environment friendly.

The pandemic additionally has resulted in stronger demand for food-delivery corporations. Each chain and unbiased operators have tapped supply corporations to achieve prospects as they closed eating rooms or restricted seating indoors.

Some restaurant corporations have pushed again on the charges and prices that supply corporations cost them. Others, similar to Domino’s Pizza, don’t use third-party supply corporations, citing these prices and different elements. These battles may intensify sooner or later. Uber, for instance, stated retailers deserved transparency on pricing when it accomplished its acquisition of Postmates in December.

DoorDash confronted criticism final yr from advocates about how its couriers have been compensated, a scenario that led it to tweak the way it handles ideas that diners go away for them. The corporate joined with different on-demand corporations to battle a California regulation that sought to reclassify contract staff as full-time workers.

DoorDash’s public providing occurred amid a surging inventory market and strong positive aspects amongst expertise corporations itemizing their shares for the primary time. Thus far in 2020, greater than $140 billion has been raised on U.S. exchanges, far exceeding the earlier full-year report set on the top of the dot-com growth in 1999, in line with Dealogic knowledge that date to 1995.

Residence-rental startup Airbnb Inc. is predicted to cost its shares above its already elevated focused vary later Wednesday, in line with individuals acquainted with the matter, in one more signal of exuberance within the IPO market.

DoorDash’s co-founders, like these from different tech startups, have sought to shore up voting management of their firm. Mr. Xu will personal a particular class of inventory by way of which he could have roughly 69% of the voting management of the corporate. Mr. Xu stated potential traders didn’t ask questions on his voting management.

Main house owners of DoorDash inventory embrace entities affiliated with SoftBank Group Corp. , Sequoia Capital and the federal government of Singapore, in line with the corporate’s prospectus for the general public providing.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, DoorDash reported a internet lack of $43 million on $879 million in income, in contrast with a lack of $152 million on $239 million in income for the year-earlier interval.

—Preetika Rana and Maureen Farrell contributed to this text.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com