DoorDash has purchased Wolt, a food delivery company in Finland, for EUR7 billion (about $8.1 billion). It also plans to expand its reach into Europe (via TechCrunch). Wolt, a Finnish-based company, contracts couriers to deliver groceries and takeout to customers in 23 countries, mainly in Europe.
Wolt and DoorDash announced in separate blogs that they had completed an all-stock transaction. This will allow DoorDash to reach Europe for the first times. DoorDash currently is not available in all US cities, Canada, Japan and Australia.
Tony Xu, co-founder and CEO at DoorDash, stated, "By joining forces we believe we can accelerate our product development and bring greater focus on each of our markets and improve the value that we provide to consumers and merchants as well as Dashers as well as couriers around the globe,"
All 4,000 Wolt employees, including Miki Kuusi (Wolt CEO and co-founder), will continue to work under DoorDash International. Official closing is expected in the second quarter of 2022.
DoorDash has taken over smaller businesses in the past
DoorDash announced its acquisition of Wolt and also published its third quarter earnings for 2021. DoorDash's revenue increased 45 percent year-over-year to $1.3 billion. This is quite a jump from $879 million in 2020. The total number of orders grew by 44 percent from 236 million in 2020 to 347 million in 2019.
DoorDash has acquired smaller businesses in the past. In 2019, it bought Caviar, a food delivery company, and Chowbotics, a robot salad-making business. DoorDash also bought Scotty Labs, a startup that makes remote-controlled vehicles, in order to realize its goal of autonomous delivery. DoorDash tested semi-autonomous six wheeled robots that could deliver food autonomously in 2017. In 2019, it partnered with GM to test humanless delivery.
DoorDash seems to be still focusing on human couriers, at least for the time being. DoorDash introduced a new set of features called SafeDash earlier this month. This safety button puts couriers in touch with ADT or allows them to call 911 through ADT during an emergency. Some argue that an app that calls 911 automatically isn't as helpful as calling 911 by yourself. Others suggest making systemic changes to ensure couriers are safe, such as allowing them to refuse dangerous routes without being penalized.
