DoorDash Becomes Major International Competitor With Close of Wolt Acquisition

DoorDash is no longer just a heavyweight in the United States. The San Francisco-based restaurant aggregator announced Wednesday (June 1) the completion of its acquisition of Helsinki-based aggregator Wolt, growing the number of countries in which DoorDash operates nearly fivefold.

“Together with Wolt, we believe we have the best team and platform to serve merchants, consumers, and couriers in our existing and future markets,” DoorDash Co-founder and CEO Tony Xu said in a statement. “Our journey in building our international business is just beginning and we’re confident in the incredible future we will build together.”

At the time of the initial announcement of the roughly $8 billion acquisition deal in November 2021, Xu noted the opportunity for DoorDash to increase the scale of its international business multiple times over in a more efficient manner than if the company only expanded to new markets on its own, one by one. Additionally, he highlighted Wolt’s non-food offerings as a chance to expand DoorDash’s reach into additional categories of on-demand commerce.

Related news: With Acquisition of Wolt, DoorDash Aims to Take on Uber Eats’ Global Reach

“Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Wolt,” Miki Kuusi, CEO of Wolt and now head of International at DoorDash, stated Wednesday. “By joining forces with DoorDash, we have an even greater ability to build delightful products and services across continents. Our two companies share a strong vision for local commerce, and working side by side, we can accomplish more for all our stakeholders.”

Before acquiring Wolt, DoorDash considered taking over the United Kingdom’s Deliveroo, but the two aggregators were not able to reach an agreement, according to a March report.

See also: DoorDash Eyed Deliveroo Acquisition, But Sides Couldn’t Agree, Report Says

Since the rise to prominence of delivery aggregators around the world, DoorDash has stood out against its competitors for being in the unique position of maintaining the lead in the competitive United States market by a wide margin but not having much of a presence internationally. As of the company’s entry into New Zealand announced eight days ago (May 25), the aggregator had a presence in six countries (DoorDash also operates in Canada, Australia, Japan and Germany).

You may also like: DoorDash Expands to New Zealand

In the United States, 71% of consumers who had used an aggregator in the previous 30 days reported having purchased form DoorDash in a PYMNTS survey featured in the March/April edition of the Digital Divide series, “The Digital Divide: Regional Variations in U.S. Food Ordering Trends and Digital Adoption,” created in collaboration with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) customer experience management (CXM) solutions provider Paytronix. In contrast, 48% of aggregator users said the same of Uber Eats, and 41% of Grubhub.

Read more: New Research Shows That Regional Dining Quirks Matter in Tailoring Restaurant Offers

However, United States runner-up Uber Eats is available in 45 countries, Grubhub’s parent company Just Eat Takeaway operates in 20 countries (plus two additional markets via partnerships), Delivery Hero has a presence in “around 50 countries” (per the aggregator’s website), and Deliveroo is available in 12 countries.

Now, Wolt has catapulted the aggregator onto the international stage. In Wednesday’s news release DoorDash states that its delivery service is live “in 27 countries today, 23 of which are with the Wolt product and brand.”