A shakeup in the food delivery market in the UK and beyond has been confirmed, after an American giant snapped up its British rival.
Last month London-based food delivery company Deliveroo said it had received a buyout offer on 5 April from US competitor DoorDash for £1.80 ($2.41) per share. The UK firm at the time said it would be “minded to recommend such an offer” to shareholders, if a firm offer were made on those terms
Now both firms have confirmed that their respective board of directors have “reached agreement on the terms of a recommended final cash acquisition of the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Deliveroo.”
Deliveroo purchase
The terms of the deal will see Deliveroo shareholders receiving £1.80 in cash per Deliveroo share, with the deal valued at approximately £2.9 billion ($3.9 billion), which represents a premium of approximately 44 percent to the closing price of 125 pence per Deliveroo share on 4 April 2025.
The terms of the Acquisition imply an enterprise value of Deliveroo of approximately £2.4 billion.
Separately on Tuesday, DoorDash announced it would also buy SevenRooms, a New York City-based hospitality-related software company, for about $1.2 billion.
“Our mission at DoorDash is to grow and empower local economies,” said Tony Xu, CEO and Co-founder of DoorDash. “We started the company in 2013 to help people like my mom – people running local businesses and creating the vast majority of jobs and economic activity in our communities.”
“Coming together with teams that have similar visions and values accelerates our work to achieve that mission,” said Xu. “Deliveroo is just such a team and one that I have long admired. Like DoorDash, Deliveroo is obsessively focused on their customers – consumers, merchants, and riders. They work day in and day out to improve their consumer value proposition, bring new services to local businesses, and offer flexibility and support to riders. These efforts and attention to detail from Will and the team have had a tremendous positive impact in the communities where Deliveroo operates.”
“I could not be more excited by the prospect of what DoorDash and Deliveroo will be able to accomplish together,” he continued. “We’ll cover more than 40 countries with a combined population of more than 1 billion people, enabling us to provide more local businesses with the tools and technology they need to thrive.
“When Greg and I founded this business in 2013, we made it our mission to bring the best of our consumers’ neighbourhoods to their door,” added Will Shu, CEO and Co-founder of Deliveroo. “We’ve stayed relentlessly focused on this mission for the past twelve years, keeping our consumers at the heart of everything we do and aiming to deliver them flawless experiences, new innovations and real value. I’m very proud of everything we have achieved as a standalone business.”
Deliveroo founder and chief executive Will Shu. Image credit: Deliveroo
“We are now at the beginning of a transformative new chapter,” said Shu. “DoorDash and Deliveroo are like-minded organisations with a shared strategic vision and aligned values. Together, we will be even better positioned to serve consumers, merchants, riders and local communities. The Enlarged Group will have the scale to invest in product, technology and the overall consumer value proposition.”
“I want to thank all of our incredibly skilled people, dedicated riders and merchants and our loyal consumers for helping us to build the successful business we have today,” said Shu. “I hope they share our excitement about what the future holds. I know that DoorDash will be a great long-term partner for our business.”
Expanded reach
The acquisition comes after Doordash had held takeover talks with Deliveroo last year, but the companies had failed to agree on a valuation.
DoorDash is the top food delivery firm in the United States, but has been looking to strengthen its presence overseas, as it currently operates in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Finland.
In 2021 DoorDash made a move into Europe when it purchased Finland-based Wolt Enterprises in a stock deal valued at about $8bn (£6bn).
Now, by acquiring Deliveroo, the enlarged group will have a global presence in over 40 countries, serving approximately 50 million monthly active users.
It has been noted that DoorDash and Deliveroo operate in complementary geographic regions; Deliveroo operates in nine countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Ireland, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom), all of which are new markets for DoorDash,
In 2024, the two companies together had generated a total Gross Order Value of approximately $90 billion.
