Postmates Rolls Out Group Ordering

Postmates is joining DoorDash and Caviar in offering its customers the option to place group orders.

The new service will be rolled out over the next few days on Postmates’ app or on its website.

“Group Orders allow you to share orders with friends so they can add items into your shared basket,” the company explained. “Name your group, set a spend limit for your guests, and share it out.”

DoorDash has been offering group orders on its site since 2015 and on its app since 2017, while Caviar (now owned by DoorDash) offers group orders on a desktop web browser. Grubhub and Seamless, as well as Caviar, offer programs for companies that need to feed their employees.

The Postmates announcement comes as the company is reportedly moving one step closer to going public when it debuts its IPO paperwork next month.

Sources have revealed that the on-demand delivery company will complete an IPO this year. In fact, if the S-1 is released in September, Postmates will be on track to go public by the end of the third fiscal quarter. The company has already hired JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America as lead underwriters. However, the size and price range of the offering is unknown.

Just last month, CEO Bastian Lehmann denied the company was up for sale, vowing to instead take Postmates public in 2019. There were reports that it was talking to bigger companies like Uber, DoorDash and Walmart about a possible deal.

“The official line is ‘I can’t comment,’” he said, and later remarked, “Our plan is to take it public.”

His remarks came after Postmates quietly filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO in February. Postmates has raised $681 million to date at a $1.85 billion valuation. The company now covers 3,500 cities and recently introduced a new free service called Postmates Party, which currently accounts for about 15 percent of the company’s orders.