Australia Gets Taste Of Digital Food Delivery With DoorDash

San Francisco-based DoorDash is moving beyond North America and is now taking orders in Melbourne, Australia, taking on UberEats, Menulog and Deliveroo, Reuters reported on Wednesday (Sept. 4).

DoorDash will start out delivering in Melbourne’s central business district and inner suburbs and expand to the rest of the country by the end of 2020, the company said in a blog post.

DoorDash General Manager for Australia Thomas Stephens said the company is excited Australia is its first international expansion outside of North America.

“We dove deep into the Australian market and quickly realized two things; restaurants want more from their delivery partners, and not all Melburnians have access to the selection that they should expect,” Stephens said in a statement.

Melbourne is the country’s second-largest city with 4.5 million people, and Australia is the world’s 14th biggest economy.

“We’re thrilled to offer Melburnian residents unprecedented access to the restaurants they love and look forward to expanding throughout the suburbs of Melbourne, its surrounding regional cities, and Australia broadly through the end of 2019 and into 2020,” Stephens said in a blog post.

North America’s biggest food delivery service was launched in 2013 and operates in more than 4,000 U.S. cities as well as in Canada. The company raised over 500 million in its latest round of funding, increasing its valuation to $12.6 billion. That funding round followed a $400 million investment at a valuation of $7.1 billion in February.

DoorDash partnered in August with online grocery eCommerce platform Mercato to offer same-day delivery of goods from independent and specialty food stores. DoorDash also teamed up with restaurant management app Revention in August to help restaurateurs streamline delivery operations. The new endeavor will help eateries accommodate busy time periods and unexpected rushes, as well as downtime and expanded service. The goal of the partnership is to build out restaurants’ operational efficiencies and eventually include supply fulfillment and last-mile logistics.