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Mobile-to-Offline Startups @ Series A

Because of a range of factors focusing consumer attention on mobile-to-offline models, I was curious how some of the companies we recognize were funded according to their footprint at the time. Luckily, I happen to know a bunch of them personally, so I emailed them about their size when their Series A’s closed. Here, in these models, scaling geographies is the execution game, and “city launchers” are the growth hackers of this world. Here’s an edited listing of what they said:

  • Uber: As reference, keep in mind Uber was in two (2) cities at the time of their $11m Series A, and about 8 for their $33m Series B.
  • Postmates was in five (5) for their $5m Series A ($5m round); six (6) cities for their $16m Series B; today, they’re at 15 on track for 26 by end of year.
  • DoorDash was in one big area (the Bay Area) or what could be called two cities (Peninsula and San Jose) for its $15m Series A, and are currently expanding geographically.
  • TaskRabbit raised a $5m Series A but I can’t find out how many cities they were in at the time.
  • Lyft raised a $6m Series A while it was Zimride on a different model [link].
  • Caviar raised a $15m Series A with four (4) cities but was, at that time, on a pace to add cities quickly. (They’ve been acquired by Square.)
  • OrderAhead is not public about their financing, but worth looking up if you’re curious about this stuff.
  • Sidecar was just in San Francisco (and plotting Seattle) when they raised a $10m Series A.
  • Hired was just about to launch its second (2nd) city at the time of their $15m Series A, and has actively hired a small handful of ex-Uber employees as it grows.
  • Shyp raised a $10m Series A operating in one city, San Francisco.
  • Munchery was just in San Francisco for all rounds of funding (to date).
  • Instacart raised a $8m Series A with two (2) cities.
  • Sprig and Spoonrocket raised $10m Series A rounds just operating in San Francisco.
  • Redacted: A number of parking-related startups have raised smaller Series A rounds being in one city, and will likely raise more.)

** Naturally, I’m going to miss some startups on this list, so if you have additions/corrections, please comment below and let me know. **