According to a FreightWaves story from May, it’s past time for the logistics industry to take notice of GoPuff. It has, after all, and so have investors.
According to a securities filing in Delaware first flagged by Prime Unicorn Index, the instant delivery company backed by SoftBank, Fidelity Management and Research Co., and Blackstone Group has raised $1.5 billion in a series X raise, which could push its valuation as high as $40 billion, according to Axios. According to multiple reports, the funding is being raised in anticipation of a GoPuff IPO as early as mid-2022.
Guggenheim Partners will issue a convertible note as part of the funding round, which has yet to close. That means that if Gopuff’s market cap exceeds $40 billion at the IPO, Guggenheim and other investors could liquidate their shares at that price instead of incurring debt.
Obtaining funding via a convertible note is a popular route for startups looking to go public because it allows them to issue debt in exchange for financing, which can increase the IPO valuation. In the months leading up to its 2020 IPO, Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) used a similar strategy.
Given its meteoric rise this year, Gopuff’s decision to go public should not come as a surprise. It all started in March when the Philadelphia-based instant delivery company more than doubled its valuation after raising $1.15 billion.
But that was just the start. In May, GoPuff announced an exclusive partnership with Uber for the delivery of everyday necessities, as well as the acquisition of Fancy, a UK-based delivery service. Just a month later, it received another $1 billion in funding in a Series H round, raising the startup’s valuation to a whopping $15 billion.
Later in the year, GoPuff acquired a second U.K. delivery platform, Dija, and last month the startup officially launched in the country with plans to expand across Europe. It has also been reported that GoPuff made an offer to acquire Flink, a German instant delivery platform that is a member of the unicorn club and is backed by DoorDash (NYSE: DASH), but the deal has yet to be completed.
According to Fortune, the burgeoning platform recently received additional funding from an unexpected source: singer and actress Selena Gomez, who has invested an undisclosed amount in the company and will sign on as a “strategic partner.”
