Postmates CEO says it was 'super, super difficult' to raise $141 million for the delivery company battling Uber and Amazon

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Basitan Lehmann

Noam Galai/Getty Images for TechCrunch

Postmates CEO Bastian Lehmann

Postmates CEO Bastian Lehmann didn't mince words about his company's long-rumored funding round.

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"It was a super, super difficult fundraise for us," Lehmann told Bloomberg's Eric Newcomer.

The company confirmed to Bloomberg that it had raised $141 million in its most recent round, lead by previous investor Founder's Fund. Fundraising documents published on Forbes last week showed that Postmates had authorized up to $190 million in shares to be sold at the same price as the last fundraising round.

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The fresh infusion of capital now values the delivery startup at $600 million, on par with its competitor in the food delivery space, DoorDash, but it's still facing mounting competition from deep-pocketed companies like Uber and Amazon.

Lehmann described Uber as the "death star" to Bloomberg and was impressed by how well it was using its balance sheet as a weapon. It was rumored that Uber and Amazon had both held talks to buy Postmates, and Lehmann doesn't rule out that a merger with another delivery network could be in its future.

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"We have a desire to build a large, big, successful company that does a lot of good for local economies," Lehmann told Bloomberg. "There are many ways to get there. If you draw the odds on how to get there the fastest, you have to entertain the thought that multiple companies or a few companies in this space could join forces."