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DoorDash's acquisition of Instacart has finally been finalized. DoorDash said last Thursday in a statement that it had agreed to acquire Instacart at a valuation of about $17 billion. DoorDash will pay consideration of $65 per share in a combination of cash and stock. The deal is the latest sign of continued consolidation in the increasingly competitive delivery market.
Instacart went public in 2023 and was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the pandemic-era surge in demand for grocery delivery services, but has since struggled to sustain that growth. Meanwhile, competition has intensified as major rivals including DoorDash and Uber have expanded beyond restaurant delivery into other merchandise delivery, including groceries.
For DoorDash, already the leading restaurant delivery app in the US, acquiring Instacart will expand its scale in the online grocery delivery market. CEO Tony Xu has recently described the grocery delivery business as the company's fastest-growing segment. DoorDash started with restaurant delivery and has since brought more retailers such as Sephora, Macy's, Staples, and Anthropologie onto its platform. After announcing a partnership with Kroger last year, DoorDash has also been onboarding an increasing number of regional grocery retailers in recent months.
The deal will also help DoorDash better compete with retail giants such as Walmart and Amazon, both of which have elevated online grocery orders to greater strategic importance in recent years.
The broader delivery app sector has been consolidating continuously since the pandemic. During this period, DoorDash has made a series of acquisitions. Besides acquiring UK-based Deliveroo, the company also completed acquisitions of hospitality technology company SevenRooms Inc. and ad-tech company Symbiosys last year. In September this year, DoorDash also agreed to acquire the campus dining business of smaller rival Grubhub.
In addition, Instacart's higher-margin advertising business and backend technology operations will further strengthen DoorDash's recent push to provide enterprise-grade tools for offline dining and retailer advertising management. Although transaction revenue still accounts for most of Instacart's total revenue, the company's advertising and enterprise businesses made up nearly 30% of revenue in the second quarter and are growing faster. Instacart's enterprise clients include Costco, which uses Instacart's technology to offer online ordering services across parts of North America and Europe.
One connects local consumption, the other goes deep into supermarket operations: what's being bought is more than delivery orders.
DoorDash's core business is a local commerce platform and on-demand delivery: consumers buy food, groceries, and other retail goods through the platform, the company connects merchants and couriers, and monetizes through merchant commissions, consumer service fees, DashPass membership, and advertising, while also providing merchants with tools for ordering, delivery, and operations on their own channels.
Instacart, by contrast, goes deeper into the grocery retail system. Its business includes Instacart Marketplace, a consumer-facing supermarket shopping platform; Instacart Enterprise, an enterprise platform helping retailers run online stores and fulfillment; and Instacart Ads, an advertising business serving consumer brands and retailers.
Supermarket orders involve large numbers of items, out-of-stock substitutions, fresh produce selection, and matching different specifications — operating requirements that differ from restaurant pickup and delivery. So what DoorDash values in Instacart includes not only consumer and retailer relationships but also product data, picking and fulfillment expertise, and retail technology. Advertising deserves particular attention: Instacart disclosed that advertising and other revenue exceeded $1 billion in 2025, meaning the potential acquisition target already has a significant monetization channel beyond delivery.
If the deal closes, DoorDash could expand consumer scenarios, deepen merchant services, and strengthen retail advertising capabilities at the same time. Restaurant users could be guided toward supermarket shopping, and Instacart's household shoppers could add other local consumption; if membership benefits, customer acquisition spending, and fulfillment resources are effectively coordinated, the platform has a chance to increase consumer share of wallet, lower repeat acquisition costs, and generate extra revenue from more transactions through advertising and merchant tools. However, these are potential synergies after the merger, and adding orders together cannot be directly equated with profit growth for now.
Regulatory review also affects deal value: according to Wedbush's analysis, even if third-party delivery still accounts for a small share of overall grocery consumption, regulators could still find high concentration issues if they focus on the narrower online delivery market or assess the market from the perspective of retailers choosing technology and fulfillment service providers. The real storyline worth the deal is whether DoorDash can turn a broader consumer funnel into sustained profitability, rather than simply becoming a larger delivery platform.
