• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

As CEO of the $96 billion Sam’s Club, Latriece Watkins is testing her mettle at the warehouse retailer that produced CEOs for Walmart, Target, and Walgreens

2

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year

3

As AI slashes white-collar jobs, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says almost no one is being hired—except in sales

1

As CEO of the $96 billion Sam’s Club, Latriece Watkins is testing her mettle at the warehouse retailer that produced CEOs for Walmart, Target, and Walgreens

2

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year

3

As AI slashes white-collar jobs, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says almost no one is being hired—except in sales
TechAmazon

What DoorDash Plans to Do With Another Half a Billion Dollars of Capital

By
Adam Lashinsky
Adam Lashinsky
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Adam Lashinsky
Adam Lashinsky
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 1, 2018, 11:56 AM ET
Courtesy of DoorDash

This article first appeared in Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top tech news. Sign up here.

Delivery, of all things, has become the global investment flavor of the month. In China, for example, Alibaba (BABA) reportedly is upping its stake in a major delivery concern, parrying, as is its wont, an investment from rival Tencent.

In the U.S., one needs a scorecard to track all the players in food delivery alone: A few include GrubHub (which bought Yelp’s Eat24); Postmates; UberEATS; Caviar (owned, counterintuitively, by Square); and the $700-billion gorilla, Amazon.

Then there is DoorDash, which is taking delivery on $535 million investment from the SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC. (According to DoorDash, the SoftBank investment is from the company’s balance sheet, not its $93-billion Vision Fund.) Tony Xu, DoorDash’s exuberant CEO, says the four-year-old company will use the cash to expand from 600 North American cities to 1,600 by year-end.

Xu says the funding proves that “the best investors are investing in the winners.” Maybe. It’s also possible that SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son likes to hedge his bets and that by staking DoorDash he’s simply placing another chip on the roulette table. After all, he owns a much larger stake in Uber. (Square (SQ), Amazon (AMZN), and GrubHub (GRUB) are all public companies.) Just as it’s a certainty that not all the 50 self-driving car companies currently experimenting in California will exist five years from now, consolidation will come to this market too.

For now, though, DoorDash has a compelling business opportunity. Its “dashers,” otherwise known as drivers, are independent contractors, just like Uber and Lyft’s workers. The company charges restaurants a delivery fee of between zero and $5, and takes an undisclosed percentage of the food order. It lets restaurants plug into its app and also provides a white-label service called Drive so consumers can order directly from the restaurant but have their order fulfilled by DoorDash. Xu says expanding the white-label service will soak up another chunk of the newfound cash.

Although DoorDash currently delivers only cooked food, Xu suggests grander plans. “Drive can handle any kind of delivery of any size, any shape,” he says. “If you can do food you can do anything else,” including retail items large and small.

It almost makes makes logistics sound glamorous.

About the Author
By Adam Lashinsky
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Dan Rogers speaking on stage.
AIAsana
Asana was battered by the AI boom. Now it’s betting its future on humans and agents working together.
By Beatrice NolanMay 29, 2026
14 hours ago
Exclusive: Microsoft is building a super app that combines coding, chat, and other Copilot AI tools
AIMicrosoft
Exclusive: Microsoft is building a super app that combines coding, chat, and other Copilot AI tools
By Sebastian HerreraMay 29, 2026
16 hours ago
Claude Mythos shown on a smartphone screen.
AIAnthropic
Anthropic leapfrogs OpenAI with a record $965 billion valuation and says its ‘Mythos’ AI model is coming soon 
By Beatrice NolanMay 29, 2026
16 hours ago
Why Meta hired Dina Powell McCormick
NewslettersMPW Daily
Why Meta hired Dina Powell McCormick
By Ellie AustinMay 29, 2026
16 hours ago
The AI arms race in cybersecurity has started. Most companies aren’t ready
Cryptocyber
The AI arms race in cybersecurity has started. Most companies aren’t ready
By Philip MartinMay 29, 2026
17 hours ago
Kalshi adds perpetual futures for U.S. traders following thumbs-up from key regulator
CryptoBitcoin
Kalshi adds perpetual futures for U.S. traders following thumbs-up from key regulator
By Jack KubinecMay 29, 2026
17 hours ago

Most Popular

As CEO of the $96 billion Sam’s Club, Latriece Watkins is testing her mettle at the warehouse retailer that produced CEOs for Walmart, Target, and Walgreens
Magazine
As CEO of the $96 billion Sam’s Club, Latriece Watkins is testing her mettle at the warehouse retailer that produced CEOs for Walmart, Target, and Walgreens
By Emma HinchliffeMay 27, 2026
3 days ago
Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year
Success
Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year
By Preston ForeMay 21, 2026
9 days ago
As AI slashes white-collar jobs, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says almost no one is being hired—except in sales
Success
As AI slashes white-collar jobs, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says almost no one is being hired—except in sales
By Emma BurleighMay 28, 2026
2 days ago
UBS says Ron DeSantis has a problem with his plan to help 92% of homeowners save on property taxes: His own state's data
Personal Finance
UBS says Ron DeSantis has a problem with his plan to help 92% of homeowners save on property taxes: His own state's data
By Nick LichtenbergMay 28, 2026
2 days ago
Researchers let AI models run a simulated society. Claude was the safest—and Grok committed 180 crimes and went extinct within 4 days
AI
Researchers let AI models run a simulated society. Claude was the safest—and Grok committed 180 crimes and went extinct within 4 days
By Jake AngeloMay 28, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of oil as of May 29, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 29, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 29, 2026
20 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.