Deliveroo: Can DoorDash redo the Wolt model?

DoorDash is acquiring Deliveroo for £2.9bn, giving it a presence in nine new European countries. The US group could well be rehashing the tried-and-tested Wolt recipe to accelerate its local growth.

Photo : DoorDash

DoorDash confirms the information that was recently circulating: the acquisition of Deliveroo for a whopping 2.9 billion pounds. The aim of this merger of two large delivery platforms is to become a global player in local commerce, with a stronger presence in Europe.

DoorDash, little known in France but dominant in the States, now gains a foothold in nine additional countries, including Belgium, the United Kingdom, France and Italy, thanks to Deliveroo’s geographic spread. The British company, founded by Will Shu, has 176,000 restaurant and retail partners, 7 million active customers and a strong presence in cities. It perfectly complements the areas where DoorDash was not yet present.

The acquisition is reminiscent of that of Wolt in 2022 for 7 billion euros. DoorDash quickly integrated the Finnish company, while preserving its identity and brand. The American group then applied its product and operational know-how to improve the performance of the European platform, accelerate innovation, improve the quality of the user experience, strengthen logistics and actively support local businesses. With the support of DoorDash, Wolt has experienced rapid growth, especially geographically, from 23 to 28 countries in less than 3 years.

DoorDash apparently plans to follow a similar strategy with Deliveroo: rely on local teams, deploy internal tools, refine logistics and optimise the user experience, while also upgrading the service provided to local partners. Deliveroo, which already has a unified technological structure in its nine countries, should be able to quickly integrate the group’s best practices. It seems likely that there will also be economies of scale. The objective? Improve customer loyalty, increase order frequency and generate more revenue for partners… and therefore for DoorDash, which takes a percentage of the turnover from its partner restaurants.

The press release about the acquisition does not say whether Deliveroo will be retained as a brand, as was the case with Wolt. Which illustrates that DoorDash does not necessarily impose its identity in an acquisition. In Germany, DoorDash even withdrew to make way for Wolt. Deliveroo also has a strong reputation in its traditional markets (particularly in the United Kingdom), which makes it plausible that the local identity will be retained.

By combining the strengths of the two complementary businesses, DoorDash aims to build a large-scale multi-category platform that can cover both urban centers and less densely populated areas. The group intends to continue investing to stimulate growth, tap into new applications (food delivery, retail) and make its model more attractive to couriers.

DoorDash and Deliveroo may be geographically complementary, but operationally integrating a player that is active in nine countries remains a major challenge. It will take time to coordinate teams and to align and adapt the offering and tools to local circumstances. DoorDash is counting on being able to quickly transfer its playbook to Deliveroo, as it did with Wolt. However, it remains to be seen what happens on the ground.