DoorDash to acquire Instacart for $17 billion, reshaping the delivery market

【Financial News, New York—Correspondent Lee Byung-chul】One of the largest food-delivery platforms in the United States, DoorDash is acquiring grocery delivery company Instacart for $17 billion (about 24 trillion won). The strategy is to combine food delivery and grocery delivery to compete with major retailers such as Amazon and Walmart.
According to the Financial Times (FT) and other major news outlets, DoorDash announced on the 29th (local time) that it had agreed to acquire Instacart for $65 per share. The price represents a premium of about 26% over Instacart’s share price before rumors of a merger between the two companies surfaced in mid-October.
About 75% of the total purchase price will be paid in cash, with the remaining 25% paid in DoorDash shares. DoorDash secured a bridge loan (short-term acquisition financing) from JPMorgan Chase to fund the cash portion of the acquisition.
The acquisition will combine Instacart’s grocery delivery network and network of major retailers with DoorDash’s existing food delivery business. Instacart is an online platform connecting major U.S. supermarkets and grocery retailers. When customers place orders, it offers a service that selects items from stores and delivers them.
DoorDash has expanded its own logistics centers and DashMart, its grocery retail hub, broadening its business beyond food delivery into the delivery markets for household essentials and groceries. The company expects that combining its own logistics network with Instacart’s retailer network through the acquisition will improve delivery efficiency and expand its customer base.
DoorDash co-founder and CEO Tony Xu said, “Groceries are one of the hardest categories to serve well online. Someone has to pick a ripe avocado, find a substitute the customer likely would have chosen, and deliver the ice cream before it melts.” He added, “Instacart has spent years learning how to provide these services well.”
Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta also said the two companies had discussed the possibility of a merger in the past. “From an industry perspective, the rationale for a merger has always been clear,” he said.
The deal is part of a series of major mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the global food and grocery delivery market. After UK delivery platform Deliveroo was acquired for £2.9 billion last year, Dutch investment firm Prosus acquired Just Eat Takeaway for €4.1 billion. Uber also pursued a deal early this year to acquire German delivery platform Delivery Hero for about $15 billion.
Delivery companies are repeatedly moving to scale up because competition in the market is growing increasingly fierce. In particular, Amazon and Walmart are aggressively expanding their grocery delivery businesses, threatening the position of established delivery platforms.
The arrival of AI shopping agents is another new variable. Concerns are growing that personal AI agents such as Meta’s Muse and OpenAI’s Dot could weaken established delivery platforms’ customer touchpoints as they become able to shop online on behalf of consumers.
Consumer behavior could shift from people opening delivery apps themselves to search for products and place orders to asking AI for the items they need and having it compare prices and delivery terms before ordering. As a result, delivery companies are also seen as shifting their strategies beyond simply brokering orders to directly securing retailers and logistics networks.
However, the acquisition could face antitrust review by U.S. regulators. The concern is that combining major players in the third-party grocery delivery services market could limit competition.



[email protected] Correspondent Lee Byung-chul Reporter