Doordash funded, virtually purchased a part of Russia-linked grocery app Fridge No More

Doordash quietly funded the operations of 15-minute supply app Fridge No More for greater than a month whereas it thought-about shopping for a part of the corporate — then pulled out on the final second, The Post has discovered.

Before Fridge No More abruptly introduced it was shutting down and laid off its 600 workers in New York and Boston on Thursday, the corporate had been financed virtually fully by cash from Doordash since late January, based on sources and messages obtained by The Post. 

Doordash swept in after Fridge No More had struggled to lift cash and amid heated competitors from different fast supply apps together with Gorillas, Gopuff, Getir, Jokr and Buyk, based on messages that Fridge No More co-founder and CEO Pavel Danilov despatched to workers on Thursday.

Doordash’s infusion of money allowed Fridge No More to maintain working whereas Doordash performed due diligence forward of the potential acquisition of components of the corporate. Some Fridge No More workers even interviewed for jobs at Doordash.  

“We have had numerous meetings and calls with them, some of you had interviews,” Danilov wrote in Thursday’s message to workers. “Everything seemed to be going well and moving forward until Tuesday morning.” 

Then on Wednesday, Doordash “unexpectedly cancelled the deal and stopped financing,” based on Danilov.

“I was not provided a detailed reason as to why,” he stated. 

Danilov didn’t point out Doordash by identify within the messages, referring as a substitute to an unnamed “promising strategic partner,” however The Post independently confirmed that Doordash was the corporate concerned.

A supply near Doordash advised The Post that “the talks ended due to multiple factors that arose during due diligence including operational issues that would have been costly and have taken months to remediate. These issues were communicated to the Fridge No More team.”

But a supply near Fridge No More’s management claimed that Doordash’s sudden withdrawal was due Danilov and co-founder Anton Gladkoborodov being from Russia — though the supply acquainted stated the founders didn’t assist Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I think they did not want the PR of acquiring a company with Russian founders right now,” the supply stated. “What is really sad to me is they judge the guys not by who they were or what they stood for but by their country of birthplace.”

Doordash declined to touch upon the report and Fridge No More didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The Post was the primary to report on Thursday morning that Fridge No More was shutting down.

Another Russia-backed speedy supply app, Buyk, furloughed 98% of its workers on Friday after US sanctions and restrictions on cash leaving Russia snarled its funding.

Buyk CEO James Walker advised furloughed workers on Thursday afternoon that Buyk had discovered a mortgage towards its property that will enable it to pay workers for the work they performed earlier than the corporate shut down. However, the corporate was not capable of safe US financing so workers would all be terminated as of Friday, Walker stated.