DoorDash boosts IPO price range amid strong appetite for tech stocks

(Reuters) - Food delivery startup DoorDash Inc now expects to raise up to $3.14 billion in its U.S. initial public offering after boosting its price range on frenzied investor interest in technology stocks that have been boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

DoorDash, the biggest U.S. third-party delivery company for restaurants, plans to sell 33 million shares at between $90 and $95 apiece, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday. It had earlier targeted a price range of between $75 and $85 per share.

Founded in 2013, DoorDash is backed by the Vision Fund managed by Japanese tech giant SoftBank Group Corp, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and sovereign wealth fund Government of Singapore Investment Corp.

Its market capitalization at the top end of the range would be around $30 billion.

A number of big Silicon Valley companies, including Palantir Technologies Inc and Snowflake Inc, had blockbuster IPOs, riding on a stock market rally in the second half of the year that was fueled by stimulus money and hopes of an effective COVID-19 vaccine.

DoorDash's offering and a planned listing by home rental startup Airbnb Inc are set to make December a busy period for IPOs, while marking a strong finish to a record year.

San Francisco-based DoorDash plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "DASH" this month. It had confidentially filed for an IPO in February.

The company and rivals Uber Eats, Grubhub Inc and Postmates Inc have benefited from a surge in demand for food delivery services due to widespread COVID-19 restrictions.

DoorDash recorded a surge in revenue growth in 2020 and posted its first quarterly profit, it disclosed in its IPO filing earlier last month.

Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters for the offering.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)