DoorDash：“只要愿意，我们随时可以赢利”

外卖公司DoorDash周四宣布通过Coatue Management、DST Global和其它几家现有投资者获得2.5亿美元融资。本次融资后，这家旧金山公司的估值达到40亿美元。

不久前，DoorDash才进行了D轮融资，获得了软银、红杉、新加坡GIC5.35亿美元的巨额投资，这么快又再次融资，让人不免觉得奇怪。

公司CEO托尼·许（Tony Xu）今天下午在电话中告诉我，本次融资原来不在计划中。

“我们D轮融到的钱确实大部分还在银行”，他承认。“这次属于抓住机会。有多家公司主动询价。我们没有主动。”

而且生意确实很好。DoorDash称6月的外卖量同比增长了250%，比今年1月年度150%的增长还要高。“虽然我们现在业务体量比以前大多了，发展速度却在加快”，Xu说。

为什么这么有吸引力？Xu认为DoorDash的发展得益于它的合作餐厅。Xu说，公司提供外送的餐厅包括多家大型连锁餐厅，如小Chipotle、芝士工厂（Cheesecake Factory）、国际饼干屋（IHOP）、红龙虾（Red Lobster）等，比竞争对手Postmates（据说正在评估和竞争对手合并的可行性）、Caviar和Munchery等的覆盖范围要广。公司的DoorDash订阅项目也有力促进了公司发展，但Xu未进一步透露更多细节。而旨在服务零售商而非顾客的DoorDash驾驶项目也在“加速”发展，部分原因是公司和沃尔玛的合作拓展到了20个州的300家门店。

Xu说，换句话说，公司拥有合理健全的商业模型是主要原因。“只有证明了某种模式可行后，我们才会融资”，他说。“公司的多项里程碑式成就提前实现，而且规模超过以前。我们希望这种情况可以持续。”公司三月融资的时候，宣布要将业务从当时的600个城市拓展到1600家城市；现在已经实现了1000个。

“我们的边际贡献是正值时，才去寻求D轮融资”，Xu告诉我。“当时我们连续六个季度边际贡献都是正数。”

他还说：“只要我们想，或者需要，随时都可以盈利。”

Xu上个月去阿斯彭参加了财富头脑风暴科技论坛，他坐在台上时，我问他，现在公司保险箱里有这么多钱，有没有考虑过跳出食品行业，进军业务范围更广的物流业，和优步、亚马逊、Grubhub外卖网竞争。而现在DoorDash又筹了一笔钱，我又问了他这个问题：“如果遇上了好机会，我们愿意这么做”，他回答道。“但现在游戏才刚开局。”

那他怎么知道什么时候公司该采取行动呢？当公司“有合适的人能成为这些新领域的创业者”时，Xu说。这家创业公司本年度新招聘250人，包括首席财务总监和首席人力总监，总员工数超过700。

Xu似乎在暗示扩展业务范围已经不再遥遥无期了。“Coatue和DST拥有出色的投资记录：脸书、爱彼迎、美团”，他这样评价公司的新投资者。“他们是最先发现我们在规模增大的同时实现加速发展的外部投资者。”

他还说；“我们的投资者都有国际视野，投资范围涵盖世界各国的外送行业。”（财富中文网）

译者：Agatha

DoorDash, the food delivery company, announced on Thursday that it has raised $250 million from Coatue Management, DST Global, and several existing investors. The funding values the San Francisco company at $4 billion.

It wasn’t so long ago that DoorDash raised a tidy sum—$535 million from SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, and Singapore’s GIC—in a Series D financing round, so it’s rather surprising that the company is back at it.

That wasn’t part of the plan, CEO Tony Xu told me in a call this afternoon.

“We do have the majority of our Series D money in the bank,” he acknowledged. “This was an opportunistic financing. We’ve had multiple inbound [inquiries]. We were not looking.”

Besides, business is good. The company says its delivery volume is up 250% in June compared to the same time last year, an increase over the 150% year-over-year growth it observed in January. “We’re accelerating our growth, even through we’re a much bigger business now,” Xu said.

Why so much traction? Xu believes DoorDash benefits from the portfolio of restaurants it supports. With Chipotle, Cheesecake Factory, IHOP, and Red Lobster, the executive said, it’s a broader array of major chains than competitors Postmates (which reportedly evaluated a merger with its rival), Caviar, and Munchery. The company’s DashPass subscription program has served DoorDash well, though Xu didn’t share specifics. And its DoorDash Drive program, which caters to the needs of retailers rather than consumers, is “accelerating,” in part due to a partnership with Walmart that’s expanded to 300 stores in 20 states.

In other words, Xu said, it’s because the business model is sound. “We never raised money until we had a proven model,” he said. “We’re seeing success in our milestones earlier and at greater magnitude than ever before. We want that to continue.” When the company raised money in March, it announced a plan to grow from 600 to 1,600 cities; it’s now serving 1,000.

“We didn’t go out for Series D until we were contribution margin-positive,” Xu told me. “We’ve been for six straight quarters.”

He added: “We can turn on profitability whenever we want or need to.”

When Xu appeared onstage at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen last month, I asked him if he—given all the coin in his company’s coffers—had designs on expanding beyond food to become a broader logistics company that competes with Uber, Amazon, and GrubHub. In light of the new money raised, I asked him again. “If we have an opportunity to do that, we’d love to,” he replied. “It’s still early innings.”

And how might he know when DoorDash is ready to take that step? When the company has “the right people who can be entrepreneurs in these new business lines,” Xu said. The startup added 250 people this year, including chief financial and people officers, bringing its total headcount to more than 700.

Xu seemed to hint that a broader mandate wasn’t far down the road. “Coatue and DST have a great track record: Facebook, Airbnb, Meituan,” he said of his new investors. “They were the first external investors who noticed we were growing faster as we got bigger.”

“And,” he added, “these are investors who have a global perspective and have invested in deliveries across the world.”