Melvin Capital, hedge fund torpedoed by the GameStop frenzy, is shutting down.

Bob Iger, the former Disney chief executive, is investing in Gopuff, a quick-delivery start-up that was a pandemic darling but has struggled recently, according to an exclusive report from DealBook. He will also act as an adviser to the founders of Gopuff, which was recently forced to put off an initial public offering and did two rounds of job cuts.

Mr. Iger told DealBook that he had always been interested in using technology to serve consumers. “Gopuff is a great example of this, and I am impressed with its product, strategy and its founders,” he said. “I look forward to advising them as they continue to grow, and I am confident they have the scale and the capital to do so.”

Mr. Iger and Gopuff did not disclose the size of the investment.

Gopuff, which promises deliveries of food, drinks and other products in 30 minutes or less, soared to a $15 billion valuation last year and operates in 1,200 cities. This year it put off an I.P.O. and, as of last month, was seeking to raise $1 billion in debt that could potentially be turned into stock. It also lowered its drivers’ minimum-pay guarantees in California, and in March it laid off about 450 people, or 3 percent of its workers. Headquartered in Philadelphia, the company was founded in 2013 by Yakir Gola and Rafael Ilishayev, two sophomores at Drexel University who are now its co-chief executives. Gopuff’s investors include Accel, Blackstone, D1 Capital Partners and SoftBank’s Vision Fund, according to Bloomberg.

The rapid-delivery business is a tough one, with intense competition. Getir, one of the largest companies in the industry, aims to deliver groceries in 10 minutes. There is also the question of which business model will prevail for on-demand shopping: Gopuff’s, in which it owns its inventory and keeps it in neighborhood fulfillment centers, or DoorDash’s third-party delivery model, which has less overhead. And consolidation seems inevitable: Just this week, the German grocery delivery start-up Flink bought a French competitor, Cajoo.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/18/business/economy-news-stocks-inflation