DoorDash is a household name that is about to go public, but it has received scant coverage in the U.S. business press compared to another soon-to-go-public firm based in San Francisco—Airbnb. And after years of heavy losses across the food-delivery industry, the prevailing wisdom is that such businesses aren’t a very good bet.
That belief is likely to change by the end of this week, as DoorDash is expected to unveil its initial public offering paperwork, including its previously undisclosed financial results. Expectations for DoorDash have risen to the point where some of its earlier investors as well as executives at rival firms say they expect DoorDash to reveal that it generated cash from its operations in the most recent quarter. That would be a noteworthy achievement in an industry that has mostly burned through cash due to the high cost of deliveries. DoorDash’s momentum means its IPO valuation is likely to be higher than its private valuation of $15.6 billion over the summer, the last time it took outside investment.