DoorDash to buy rival Instacart for $17B US as it bets on grocery delivery

Rising cost pressures and tough regulatory scrutiny over the treatment of gig workers have spurred deals in the industry, with many smaller players being eaten up by competitors in recent years.

Fast food delivery companies have been expanding into grocery, retail products

Thomson Reuters

· Posted: Oct 29, 2026 8:52 AM EDT | Last Updated: 22 minutes ago

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DoorDash said on Thursday it would buy Instacart in a deal valued at about $17 billion US, stepping up its push ‌into the fast-growing U.S. grocery delivery market as competition among app-based platforms intensifies.

DoorDash has offered Instacart shareholders $65 per share held, representing a premium of about 26 per cent to ​the stock's closing price on Oct. 22, ​before reports of deal talks first emerged.

Delivery companies are chasing growth by expanding into grocery and retail ​as the restaurant delivery business matures.

"Grocery is one ⁠of the hardest ⁠things to get right ‌online," said Tony Xu, co-founder and CEO of DoorDash, adding that Instacart has spent years learning to do that well for grocers.

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After enjoying a pandemic-era boom with millions stuck at home, the meal kit industry is now seeing a huge drop-off in sales as the affordability crisis hits Canadians in the wallet.

Grocery deliveries are gaining traction as budget-conscious consumers embrace ⁠the convenience of online deliveries, especially when gas prices have hit new highs due to disruptions linked to the war in Iran.

Meanwhile, heightened ‌competition following a slowdown in orders from the pandemic peaks, along with rising cost pressures and tough regulatory scrutiny over the treatment of gig workers, has spurred a flurry of ​deals in the industry.

• Pandemic expanded online grocery shopping and delivery, but experts say in-store customers will be back

These include Just Eat Takeaway acquiring Grubhub for $7.3 billion US, DoorDash's ⁠purchase of Wolt and the U.K.'s Deliveroo in 2025, as well ⁠as Uber's $15 billion US deal for Delivery Hero earlier this year ⁠and ⁠Postmates in 2020.

The DoorDash-Instacart ​transaction is expected to close at the end of 2027 or the ​first half of ⁠2028.

In a regulatory filing on Monday, Instacart said it would wind down its Caper Cart smart shopping-cart business by the end of the second quarter of 2027, expecting related pre-tax charges of $55 million to $80 ⁠million.