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Crowdfunding / Startups

Gopuff scooped up another billion-dollar investment. It’s now valued at $15B

The on-demand delivery company leads the pack among three newly minted Philly unicorns.

Gopuff delivery. (Courtesy photo)
About four months after on-demand delivery company Gopuff raised $1.15 billion, the company announced Friday it had raised $1 billion more, with a mix of new and existing investors.

The Spring Garden-based company’s valuation now stands at a reported $15 billion, and tech investors like Blackstone’s Horizon platform, Guggenheim Investments, Hedosophia, MSD Partners and Adage Capital join existing investors Fidelity Management and Research Company, SoftBank’s Vision Fund 1, Atreides Management and Eldridge in this round.

Gopuff was founded in 2013 by Drexel University grads Rafael Ilishayev and Yakir Gola. After its previous $1 billion investment, the company made several strategic acquisitions in the past year, including Fancy, a U.K.-based last-mile delivery platform, and enterprise logistics software company rideOS. It also branched into new product offerings and strategic initiatives, recently launching Gopuff Kitchen, made-to-order meals in mobile kitchens near a number of micro-fulfillment centers.

“Gopuff has quietly built a very strong business and solidified itself as the leading player, continuing to define this evolving category,” said Scott Minerd, global chief investment officer of Guggenheim Investments, in a statement. “Rafael and Yakir are focused on maintaining fiscal responsibility while having the ability to successfully execute on strategic growth opportunities. This measured approach along with Gopuff’s impressive offering has only just scratched the surface.”

The round will allow Gopuff to continue to accelerate its strategic business initiatives and further expand across North America, the U.K. and across Europe, the company said. It also plans to continue hiring and will focus on its technology around the customer experience.

“As Gopuff continues to define the instant needs economy, we are thrilled to have new leading global partners onboard, along with the support of our longtime investors,” Ilishayev said. “This funding round is further validation of the success of our model and will enable us to continue to do what we do best: deliver an unmatched customer experience.”

Its raise in March was one of the region’s biggest venture capital raises ever. The company has consistently raised millions — and then billions — every few months since a surprise $750 million investment from SoftBank in 2019. It’s good news for Philly, a handful of investors and entrepreneurs told us this spring.

“I think that other founders should not get intimidated by these numbers, but rather think about the industry that goPuff is in,” Adit Gupta, cofounder of Lula, an eco-conscious delivery service for convenience stores told Technical.ly then.

Food delivery companies historically have to raise a lot to accommodate for their multi-sided marketplaces, and founders should think about the benchmarks for raising in their industry, Gupta said. They should also keep an eye on the customer lifetime value to customer acquisition cost that’s optimized for their industry.

The region’s seen a handful of unicorns — companies valued at more than $1 billion — in the past year, with Gopuff, data analytics company dbt Labs (formerly Fishtown Analytics) and HR tech platform Phenom all hitting the mark in the first six months.

Companies: Gopuff / dbt Labs / Phenom
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