What A Buzz

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What's going on?

DoorDash will start next year feeling reinvigorated: the food delivery service hit the stock market on Wednesday, and investors initially sent its shares up 80%.

What does this mean?

Just like Deliveroo, Just Eat Takeaway.com, and Uber Eats, DoorDash delivers meals straight to the homes of hungry diners. And with 50% of the US food delivery market to its name, the companys done well from a pandemic thats had people ordering more than they mightve if restaurants were open. In the first nine months of 2020, in fact, DoorDash processed food orders worth $16.5 billion three times more than the same time last year. That means its earned a lot more in commission, as well as laid the groundwork for a successful initial public offering (IPO).


And thats exactly what it got: DoorDash raised $3.4 billion from its IPO after having hiked its starting share price twice in the last week. That put the entire companys valuation at $38 billion making it one of the USs biggest IPOs this year.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: Tis the season.


December is typically a quiet month for stock markets, but this year is anything but typical. DoorDash will be followed onto the stock market on Thursday by Airbnb whose shares are looking increasingly expensive and next week by ecommerce platform Wish. And before the years out, theyll be joined by fintech Affirm and childrens game company Roblox too.



For you personally: Room for a small one?


The privilege of buying into a company before its public is almost exclusively reserved for venture capital and private equity firms. But there are a couple of ways you can get ahead of the game too (tweet this): you could angel invest in the next big thing through personal connections or crowdfunding platforms, or find a broker that offers grey markets, which let you speculate on a companys share price before it lists.

Originally posted as part of the Finimize daily email.

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