Wednesday November 10, 2021
Expansion to Europe
US group takes over delivery service Wolt
The US delivery service Doordash is expanding to Europe. The market leader from the United States grabs Finnish competitor Wolt for seven billion euros. According to rumors, Doordash is also interested in a delivery service startup from Germany.
The US food delivery service Doordash is entering the European market on a large scale with the takeover of Finnish rival Wolt. Last night, the US industry leader announced that it would pay seven billion euros for Wolt in a pure share deal. The market for food deliveries grew rapidly during the Corona crisis. Nevertheless, many providers are still in the red, which is why experts are now expecting a wave of consolidation.
With the takeover, Doordash is also entering the German market, where Lieferando owner Just Eat Takeaway.com, Uber and Delivery Heros Foodpanda are competing with Wolt. With the takeover of Grubhub, Just Eat Takeaway has also risen to become a major player in the USA.
The deal was well received on the stock market. After hours, Doordash shares jumped almost 19 percent. With the takeover, Doordash is not only entering the German market, but also entering a total of 22 new countries – including Denmark, Sweden and Serbia. Expansion into Germany had long been expected. According to insiders, Doordash also wants to participate in the German fast food delivery service Flink.
Wolt was founded in Helsinki in 2014 and has since expanded to Europe and Asia. There are now more than 30,000 restaurants and shops on its platform and 4,000 employees. Wolt now has more than 2.5 million active users per month. At Doordash there are more than 9 million.
Doordash CEO Tony Xu said the deal “puts his company on an even bigger global stage for a bigger price.” In 2022, he expects the merged company to have adjusted operating income of between $ 0 million and $ 500 million. As part of the takeover, EQT leaves Wolt and receives Doordash shares in return. As recently as January, Wolt had raised a total of $ 530 million from investors – including EQT, Iconiq, Tiger Global, Highland Europe and KKR. Last year, the company, which also delivers groceries and bouquets, had sales of around $ 345 million.