DoorDash Q4 Earnings Highlight Deliveroo and Agentic AI Push

DoorDash used its fourth-quarter earnings call to make a broader point about where it sees the next leg of competition: not just in meal delivery, but in owning the software and logistics stack that powers local commerce.

“We believe these investments are the right investments, especially as we think about becoming the operating system for local commerce,” CFO Ravi Inukonda told analysts, reiterating that the company’s goal “has always been to maximize long-term free cash flow.”

The U.S.-based delivery marketplace best known for restaurant orders is positioning itself as a technology and infrastructure partner to merchants. A key part of that shift is its acquisition of Deliveroo, the U.K. food delivery platform with a strong footprint across Europe. DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said Deliveroo is growing faster while delivering the profit contribution DoorDash expected.

The company is also leaning into SevenRooms, a guest experience and customer relationship management platform for restaurants, which helps operators manage reservations, marketing and loyalty. Combined with DoorDash’s consumer demand, management believes that pairing software and traffic can deepen merchant relationships.

On the advertising front, DoorDash highlighted progress at Symbiosys, its in-house ad technology platform that allows restaurants and retailers to buy sponsored placements within the marketplace. The ads business has been scaling alongside core order growth.

Logistics remains central. Xu described a future where independent contractors known as Dashers work alongside autonomous vehicles in a “mixed fleet” model. The idea is to assign deliveries based on complexity and distance, with higher-effort grocery and retail orders receiving tailored pay and app support.

Those investments carry near-term cost pressure. In its first-quarter outlook, DoorDash cited higher Dasher costs per order tied to seasonality, capacity investments and regulated market increases, along with incremental Deliveroo investment and storm-related impacts.

Financially, the quarter showed continued scale. Revenue rose 38% year over year to $3.955 billion, while GAAP net income reached $213 million and adjusted EBITDA climbed to $780 million. For the full year, revenue totaled $13.7 billion and net income attributable to common stockholders was $935 million.

Looking ahead, management expects 2026 adjusted EBITDA margin to increase slightly versus 2025, excluding Deliveroo, with Deliveroo contributing roughly $200 million in EBITDA this year.

In short, DoorDash is evolving from a food delivery app into a broader commerce platform, one that blends software, advertising, fulfillment and autonomy in an effort to give local businesses the tools to compete with larger digital rivals.