US delivery giant Doordash has made a bid to buy Deliveroo, signalling a significant shift in the global food delivery and retail media markets. DoorDash, the San Francisco-based delivery firm, has tabled an cash offer of £2.7 billion for London-based Deliveroo. If successful, the acquisition will consolidate the quick commerce delivery landscape, and position DoorDash in Europe, where it has previously acquired Wolt, Deliveroo’s Finnish rival.
DoorDash was founded in 2013 by Tony Xu and rapidly emerged as a dominant player in the US delivery market, initially focusing on restaurants. It has since diversified into grocery, alcohol, convenience items, pet products, health and beauty, and even home improvement goods. The company has never posted a profit since its 2021 IPO. Its total marketplace GMV was $80.2B in 2024 and net revenue grew 24% in 2024 to $10.7 billion in revenue in 2024 across 30 markets.
Deliveroo operates in 10 countries, with 59% of Gross Transaction Value (GTV) generated in the UK & Ireland and 41% from international markets including France, Italy, Belgium, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UAE.
Deliveroo has expanded its offer across restaurant, grocery and retail and has more than 7 million active global users and around 186,000 restaurant, grocery and retail sites delivering around 300 million orders per year. GTV in 2023 was £7bn with net revenues of £2bn.
Founded by Will Shu in 2013, Deliveroo went public in a hotly anticipated IPO four years ago. The shares have lost more than 60% on its listing price. The company booked its first full annual profit in its 2024 results.
Deliveroo said in a statement on Friday that its board “would be minded to recommend” DoorDash’s offer of £1.80 a share if a firm approach were made.
Doorbash has a ‘prior’ with European acquisitions. It acquired Finland’s Wolt in 2022 which operated in 23 countries including markets such as Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Israel, Azerbaijan, Greece, Kazakhstan and Serbia.
The takeover talks between the two quick deliver and takeaway apps come as consolidation gathers pace in the sector. Earlier this year, Prosus struck a €4.1bn deal to take Europe’s leading food delivery group Just Eat Takeaway private.
Doordash, Deliveroo and Retail Media
DoorDash launched its retail media platform in late 2022, aiming squarely at Instacart’s established dominance in grocery and convenience categories for Retail Media. The platform enabled Doordash restaurants and FMCG brands to increase visibility through self-serve Sponsored Listings using self-serve DoorDash Ads Manager. The advertising model is a cost-per-click, keyword-based search platform.
Doordash are very interesting in grocery being part of their delivery proposition. Founder, Tony Xu wrote in the DoorDash shareholders report that “this is also an area where investing in scale matters, and when you consider an estimated combined $5T of spend in the US in grocery and retail, these categories represent a significant potential source of profit dollars.”
Deliveroo has also aggressively expanded its retail media capabilities, launching Deliveroo Media in 2022 and rapidly growing it into a significant revenue stream. Retail Media had an annualised run-rate of £90m or 1.2% of GTV in in Q2’24, up from run-rate of 1% of GTV in 2023. The company claim it is now 1.4% of Gross Transaction Value (GTV) as of late 2024, with targets set to exceed 2% by 2026.
New initiatives raised grocery as a share of total revenue to 13% of GTV in 2023 and the company claims to have secured advertising partnerships with major FMCG brands including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Heineken, as well as non-endemic sectors such as media giants ITV and Sky. As recently as April 2025, Deliveroo announced a partnership with SMG who bring their expertise from managing successful retail media networks for major brands like Boots, Co-op and Morrisons in the UK
Consolidation in quick commerce is accelerating. Only the most diversified and operationally excellent players will thrive. Both DoorDash and Deliveroo have built impressive capabilities in logistics, customer data, and advertising. The proposed acquisition of Deliveroo will mark another interesting turning point that could reshape retail media.