Food delivery service DoorDash stepped into the coveted “unicorn” club with its latest $535 million funding round, which values it at $1.4 billion.
And CEO Tony Xu wants to make sure the company is “scaling quality as we scale quantity,” Xu told Cheddar.
“We’re going to be growing to every zip code in every city in North America. As a result, we have to make sure that we keep focusing on the basics.”
DoorDash operates in an increasingly competitive space with brands like Seamless, GrubHub, and UberEats all vying for domination.
To stay ahead, Xu says his company focuses on maintaining a variety of merchants.
“It starts with offering the broadest selection and offering at the highest quality [with] a consistent level of service.”
He pointed out that DoorDash serves 90 percent of the top 100 restaurant brands that offer delivery. “That’s more than all our peers combined.”
Going forward, Xu sees DoorDash automating parts of its delivery logistics.
“We’ve been working with autonomous delivery systems for about three years now,” said Xu. “It’s really a very difficult problem because you’re talking about solving the first- and last-10-feet problem. So this is going to take some time before it truly develops.”
Xu also envisions using DoorDash’s technology to get industries beyond restaurants online. “When you can deliver a burrito hot and deliver ice cream that does not melt, you can deliver just about anything.”
But Xu didn’t go into any details of the industries that DoorDash is eyeing next.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/doordash-raises-535-million-in-series-d-funding).
Peacock shared the trailer for the second season of the celebrity competition show, 'The Traitors.'
Darden, the parent company of chain restaurants like Olive Garden and Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, beat Wall Street estimates in its latest earnings report.
A former Facebook executive pled guilty to stealing more than $4 million from the company while she was employed there.
Rising safety concerns over water bead products marketed to kids have prompted major retailers like Amazon, Target and Walmart to pull some toys off their shelves.
The Congressional Budget Office said Friday it expects inflation to nearly hit the Federal Reserve's 2% target rate in 2024, as overall growth is expected to slow and unemployment is expected to rise into 2025, according to updated economic projections for the next two years.
Intel is out with a new product to challenge other big players in the space like Nvidia and AMD.
Stocks fell after the opening bell Friday but will end on another positive week.
Cheddar News' Need2Know is brought to you by Securitize, which helps unlock broader access to alternative investments in private businesses, funds, and other alternative assets. The private credit boom is here and the Hamilton Lane Senior Credit Opportunities Fund has tripled in assets under management in just six months from November 2022 through April this year. Visit Securitize.io to learn more.
Americans picked up their spending from October to November as the unofficial holiday season kicked off, underscoring that shoppers still have power to keep buying.
The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate dropped below 7% to its lowest level since early August, another boost for prospective homebuyers who have largely been held back by sharply higher borrowing costs and heightened competition for relatively few homes for sale.
