Looking to cash in on hungry people seeking convenience, food delivery provider Blue Apron is ready to take its business public.
Blue Apron filed for an initial public offering late Thursday that looks to raise $100 million. It’s reportedly seeking a market valuation of $3 billion, anonymous sources told Bloomberg. Blue Apron was valued at $2 billion in a funding round in June 2015, led by mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments.
It would be the first company in the crowded food delivery market to go public.
“We expect competition in food sales generally, and with companies providing food delivery in particular, to continue to increase,” Blue Apron said in its IPO prospectus. It competes against a “wide array of food retailers, conventional supermarkets, other food retailers, and online supermarket retailers.” The competition also includes casual-dining and quick-service restaurants.
One of Blue Apron’s closest competitors is Berlin-based Hello Fresh, which withdrew IPO plans last year. Other rivals in the prepackaged-meal delivery market include Munchery, Gobble, Chef’d, Plated and Veestro.
Amazon.com (AMZN) and Google-owner Alphabet (GOOGL) also provide food delivery services. In March, Amazon announced that it would partner with Martha Stewart to provide prepackaged meal kits under the Martha & Marley Spoon brand. The meals are delivered through the AmazonFresh grocery delivery service. Alphabet provides food delivery service through its Google Express unit.
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