By Tony Xu, CEO and Co-founder
Today we’re very excited to announce that we have raised $127 million in our Series C round of financing. Sequoia Capital led the round with participation from existing investors including Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures. We’re also excited to welcome our newest investors: Y Combinator Continuity Fund, whose operational expertise through their partner Ali Rowghani will be invaluable as we grow our business; and Wellcome Trust, who joins us from the UK and has vast experience in Europe as well as a globally diversified investment portfolio.
This new round of capital will help us further our mission of connecting communities around the world through last-mile delivery. We plan to continue investing in our core technology to build the first software-enabled logistics company. We will continue to grow and expand our operations both across the US and beyond. And we will build out our support and operations teams to continue to delight our customers by providing the very best delivery experience every single time they place an order.
It’s easy to look at the landscape over the past few months and think that the technology industry has had its best days behind it. However, at DoorDash at least, I take the contrarian view. We are growing fast while building a scalable business that is built to last. In 2015 we added 19 markets to DoorDash – including two in Canada – and have completed millions of deliveries across our footprint. We’ve built a business based on first principles that is helping grow local businesses across North America. And we have more than doubled our staff by recruiting a world-class team of top engineers, entrepreneurs, military veterans and operators who have the skills and experience needed for DoorDash to thrive. The fact that in a tough economic market and in a crowded space we were able to raise more than $125 million without resorting to valuation gimmicks and employee-unfriendly terms is a testament to the incredible team, technology and opportunity at DoorDash.
However, at the end of the day none of this matters if we don’t delight our three core audiences – customers, dashers and merchants – on a day-to-day basis. Ordering food is not like purchasing a computer: while you may buy a new laptop once every couple years, many people order from DoorDash on a daily basis. And every single time a customer places an order we have to earn his or her loyalty by delivering a consistently incredible experience. So while we’re excited about this new vote of confidence from our investors and new set of resources to help us grow, we’re keeping our eyes on what matters like we always have – building the very best delivery service possible and delighting our customers every single day.
If you are interested in joining us on our mission, please check out doordash.com/jobs. We can’t wait for you to join us on this ride!
Updated 3/23 to clarify Wellcome Trust’s investments.