Skip to content
Sign in
Business · North America

DoorDash says it will acquire Instacart for about $17 billion

DoorDash announced it will acquire Instacart in a deal valued at approximately $17 billion. DoorDash says Instacart users would gain access to more than 50,000 additional stores, while members of both services could use one membership fee.

AI-assisted synthesis · Based on 5 outlets' reporting · Article text read from 1 of 5 outletsHow it's made

View timeline · 8 entries
5 outlets2 regionsLatest reporting 3 min read
Coverage: Center OnlyL 0 · C 4 · R 0 · 1 unrated
Updat3 graphic: DoorDash
Updat3 graphic

What happened

Key facts

  • DoorDash announced a deal to acquire Instacart valued at about $17 billion (per The Verge, wwnytv.com, Yahoo).
  • DoorDash says Instacart users would gain access to more than 50,000 additional stores through the deal (per The Verge).
  • DoorDash says DashPass and Instacart Plus members would be able to pay one membership fee instead of two (per The Verge).
  • DoorDash says it plans to retain Instacart’s brand, enterprise technology products and app, keeping the services separate rather than combining them into one platform (per The Verge).
  • Instacart CEO Chris Rogers said the deal would make online grocery more seamless and affordable for millions of households (per The Verge).
  • DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said grocery is one of the hardest things to get right online (per The Verge).
  • The Verge said the deal could help DoorDash’s grocery business compete with Amazon and Walmart (per The Verge, moneycontrol.com).

The brief

DoorDash announced it will acquire Instacart in a deal valued at approximately $17 billion, bringing the two grocery-delivery companies under a planned acquisition subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.

The Verge reported that DoorDash sees the transaction as a way to extend access to grocery delivery: the company says Instacart users would gain access to more than 50,000 additional stores. The proposed customer arrangement would also connect the companies’ membership programs.

DoorDash says DashPass and Instacart Plus members would be able to pay one membership fee rather than two. The announcement does not describe the fee amount or specify how the arrangement would operate; the stated proposal is a single fee for members of the two services.

DoorDash says Instacart would retain its existing brand, enterprise technology products and app after the deal closes. Under that plan, the services would continue to operate separately instead of merging into a single platform. This outlines the structure DoorDash described, while completion remains conditional on regulatory approvals and other closing requirements.

The companies expect to complete the deal at the end of 2027 or during the first half of 2028. That timetable is an expectation, not a completed transaction: the acquisition still needs to satisfy the stated conditions. The Verge’s account does not identify a regulator’s decision or give a more precise closing date.

Instacart CEO Chris Rogers said the deal would make online grocery more seamless and affordable for millions of households. DoorDash CEO Tony Xu described online grocery as particularly difficult to execute. The Verge also said the acquisition could help DoorDash’s grocery business compete with Amazon and Walmart; that is its assessment of the deal’s competitive significance.

The deal has also been described in headlines as a major grocery-delivery consolidation. WWNY and Yahoo Finance each reported a $17 billion acquisition, while Moneycontrol characterized the companies as nearing a deal and Livemint presented the buyout as likely to be made official that day.

Those headlines do not add details about the proposed operating arrangements or closing conditions. The central terms described by DoorDash remain expanded store access, a possible shared membership fee, separate Instacart services and a closing dependent on approvals and other conditions.

Why it matters

  • Instacart users could gain access to more than 50,000 additional stores, according to DoorDash.
  • DashPass and Instacart Plus members could pay one membership fee instead of two, changing the stated payment arrangement for subscribers of both services.
  • Instacart’s brand, technology products and app are slated to remain in place, with the services operating separately rather than as one platform.
  • DoorDash’s grocery business could face stronger competition with Amazon and Walmart, a competitive implication identified by The Verge.

What to watch next

  • Whether regulators approve the acquisition, a condition DoorDash says must be met before closing.
  • Whether the companies satisfy the other closing conditions described by DoorDash.
  • Whether the deal closes at the end of 2027 or during the first half of 2028, the companies’ stated expectation.
  • How DoorDash implements the proposed single membership fee for DashPass and Instacart Plus members.

How it's being covered

Coverage analysisShow details
5 source articles · 5 unique outlets
Outlet political mix: Center Only· 4 Center · 1 unrated
Where the outlets are based: US/Canada 40% · Asia 40% · Other 20%
Outlet political mix
Center Only
Left
Center
Right
0 outlets
4 outlets
0 outlets
The marker shows coverage balance: each unique outlet counts once. 1 unrated outlet is not included.
Geography
Where the outlets covering this story are based.
5 unique outletsDominant coverage: US/Canada
Coverage imbalance
  • Coverage is currently concentrated among Center-rated outlets (4 of 4 rated sources); comparatively few Left or Right-rated outlets have published on the event.
How we measure coverage

How outlets' accounts compare

Updat3 does not yet have enough full reports to compare how outlets framed this story.

Timeline

Developments from this story's sources, dated background we compiled and fact-checked, and our earlier coverage. Each row says which.
  1. Apoorva Mehta founded Instacart as an online grocery-delivery service.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  2. DoorDash was founded as a restaurant-delivery company.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  3. DoorDash completed its $410 million acquisition of restaurant-delivery company Caviar.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  4. The pandemic accelerated grocery delivery: in April 2020, Instacart said it planned to hire 300,000 shoppers as demand surged.
    Background · from our historical context
  5. DoorDash began offering grocery delivery through more than 400 stores operated by Ahold Delhaize.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  6. DoorDash completed its acquisition of European delivery company Wolt.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  7. Instacart, meanwhile, went public on Nasdaq on September 19, 2023, after building its business around online grocery ordering and delivery.
    Background · from our historical context
  8. Instacart agreed to offer restaurant delivery powered by Uber Eats through its grocery app.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3

How we got here

DoorDash’s push beyond restaurant delivery took a major step in September 2020, when it announced a grocery-delivery partnership with Albertsons; in November 2021, it began offering grocery delivery through more than 400 stores operated by grocer Ahold Delhaize.

Instacart, meanwhile, went public on Nasdaq on September 19, 2023, after building its business around online grocery ordering and delivery. Apoorva Mehta founded Instacart in 2012, and Tony Xu, Stanley Tang, Andy Fang and Evan Moore founded DoorDash in 2013.

Original sources

5 articles from 5 outlets

Every story links to the reporting it was built from. How we choose sources

Spotted a factual error, a broken link or a misleading summary? Tell us.