Food delivery
Food delivery is the on-demand ordering, dispatching and delivery of restaurant meals and groceries to consumers, run by three-sided marketplaces matching diners, restaurants and delivery couriers. Global food delivery GMV cleared $230B in 2024, with the US, China, Western Europe and India as the four anchor regions. The category took its hangover from the COVID surge through 2022-23, but the survivors are now profitable on a unit-economic basis - DoorDash, Uber Eats, Just Eat Takeaway and Delivery Hero have all posted positive adjusted EBITDA since 2023 after a half-decade of cash-burning growth. Grocery and quick commerce remain the unsettled adjacencies.
It spans restaurant delivery marketplaces in the US and Europe, integrated regional super-apps in Asia and Latin America (Meituan, Grab, Rappi), grocery and supermarket delivery, quick-commerce dark-store networks for sub-30-minute groceries, and the ghost-kitchen and virtual-brand infrastructure supplying delivery-only restaurants.
Revenue comes from commissions on restaurant orders (typically 15-30%), customer delivery and service fees, subscription programs like DashPass and Uber One, advertising sold to restaurants competing for placement, and growing lines from grocery delivery, retail and embedded fintech.
Food delivery is part of E-commerce & marketplaces and Mobility.
$300B
Global market size
26
Public companies
Key VC investors
Key strategic buyers
How food delivery companies monetize?
Food delivery companies monetize through restaurant commissions, customer delivery and service fees and subscription memberships.
Restaurant commissions
15-30% take rate on restaurant order subtotal. The core revenue line at DoorDash, Uber Eats, Just Eat Takeaway and Delivery Hero. Regulated caps in several US cities and parts of the EU.
Customer delivery & service fees
Per-order delivery fees, service fees and small-order fees paid by the diner. Material at scaled platforms where the commission line is capped or the order is high frequency.
Subscription memberships
DashPass, Uber One, Grubhub+ and Deliveroo Plus offer free delivery and discounted service fees for an annual or monthly fee. The lock-in mechanism driving frequency and retention.
Restaurant advertising
Sponsored placement in search, category and homepage feeds sold to restaurants competing for orders. The fastest-growing line at DoorDash and Uber Eats and the highest-margin tier.
Grocery & retail
Commissions, fees and ad revenue on grocery, convenience and retail orders. Instacart-style integration with supermarkets at DoorDash; quick-commerce dark stores at Delivery Hero, Getir and Gopuff.
Logistics-as-a-service
Delivery network sold back to restaurants, retailers and DTC brands as an on-demand last-mile service (Drive, Uber Direct, Wolt Drive). Higher-margin and lower-CAC than marketplace flow.
Food delivery valuations in May 2026
Public food delivery comps trade at 1.1x EV/Revenue. Median revenue multiple across food delivery M&A deals was 2.3x in the last 12 months. Median revenue multiple across food delivery VC rounds was 5.8x in the last 12 months.
1.1x
Median EV/Revenue as of May 2026 for public food delivery companies
3.0x
Uber is the highest valued public food delivery company based on EV/Revenue (excluding outliers)
2.3x
Median EV/Revenue across food delivery M&A deals in the last 12 months
5.8x
Median EV/Revenue across food delivery VC rounds in the last 12 months
Food delivery market segments
Food delivery spans US restaurant delivery, European restaurant delivery and Asia-Pacific super-apps.
US restaurant delivery
Three-player market consolidated around DoorDash, Uber Eats and a much smaller Grubhub. DoorDash leads US share by a wide margin; Grubhub was sold by Just Eat Takeaway to Wonder Group in 2024. Key players: DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub and Caviar (DoorDash).
European restaurant delivery
Multi-country market with national leaders. Just Eat Takeaway leads Northern Europe; Deliveroo dominates the UK; Delivery Hero owns Foodpanda and Talabat brands across Central, Eastern and MENA Europe. Key players: Just Eat Takeaway, Deliveroo, Delivery Hero and Uber Eats.
Asia-Pacific super-apps
Vertically integrated apps bundling food delivery, mobility, payments and other services. Meituan dominates China; Grab leads Southeast Asia; Gojek (GoTo) leads Indonesia; Zomato and Swiggy split India. Key players: Meituan, Grab, Zomato and Swiggy.
LatAm regional players
Rappi leads Andean countries and Mexico; iFood dominates Brazil; PedidosYa (Delivery Hero) leads Argentina and Uruguay. Most operate as super-apps with mobility, grocery and fintech tiers. Key players: Rappi, iFood, PedidosYa and Uber Eats.
Grocery & supermarket delivery
Marketplaces partnering with supermarkets for same-day or one-hour grocery, with picking handled in-store. Instacart leads US; Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grab all run grocery tiers. Key players: Instacart, DoorDash Grocery, Uber Eats Grocery and Ocado.
Quick commerce & dark stores
Sub-30-minute grocery and convenience built on dark-store networks the platform owns and operates. Sharp 2022-24 consolidation - Getir exited Western markets in 2024, Gorillas absorbed by Getir then unwound, Gopuff cut significant footprint. Key players: Gopuff, Getir, Flink and Zapp.
Ghost kitchens & virtual brands
Delivery-only kitchen networks and virtual-brand operators producing food exclusively for delivery channels. CloudKitchens, REEF Technology and Kitchen United make up most of the venture-backed infrastructure. Key players: CloudKitchens, REEF Technology, Kitchen United and Reef Mobility.
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Key food delivery KPIs to track
GOV, take rate, contribution profit per order and subscriber penetration are the metrics investors track in food delivery.
| KPI | Definition |
|---|---|
| GOV / GMV | Gross order value across the marketplace. The headline scale metric for every public food delivery operator. |
| Total orders | Completed deliveries in the period. Combined with AOV, it reads frequency vs basket-size growth. |
| Average order value | GOV per order. Tends to drift down as platforms expand into convenience and quick commerce and up when they push restaurants toward minimum-order incentives. |
| Take rate | Net revenue as a percentage of GOV. Sits at roughly 15-22% for the scaled platforms in 2024-25 after subscription, ads and fees. |
| Contribution profit per order | Order revenue minus payments, courier costs, refunds and direct order costs. DoorDash and Uber Eats publicly anchor profitability narratives on this. |
| Subscriber count / penetration | DashPass and Uber One members and the share of orders coming from subscribers. The single biggest frequency and retention lever. |
| Courier utilisation | Orders per courier hour. Reads matching efficiency, density of the network and balance between demand and supply. |
| Restaurant retention | Year-over-year retention of paying restaurants on the platform. The supply-side health check, particularly meaningful for second-tier markets. |
Main food delivery players globally
The most active food delivery companies and category leaders globally.
| Company | HQ | Overview |
|---|---|---|
DoorDash doordash.com |  San Francisco | Largest US food delivery platform with ~65% US restaurant share, expanding into grocery, convenience and international (Wolt). Public NYSE: DASH; first full-year GAAP profitability in 2024. |
Uber Eats ubereats.com | San Francisco | Global delivery arm of Uber (NYSE: UBER), operating in 30+ countries and reaching $73B in delivery gross bookings in 2024. Operates Postmates (acquired 2020) and Drizly (shut down 2024) in the US. |
Meituan meituan.com |  Beijing | Dominant Chinese food delivery and local services platform, with ~75% Chinese food delivery share. Public HKEX: 3690; operates Meituan Instashopping, ride-hailing, hotels and travel. |
Just Eat Takeaway justeattakeaway.com |  Amsterdam | Multi-brand European food delivery group (Just Eat UK, Lieferando Germany, Thuisbezorgd Netherlands) with strong order-only marketplace heritage. Public AMS: TKWY; sold Grubhub to Wonder Group in late 2024 for ~$650M. |
Delivery Hero deliveryhero.com |  Berlin | Multi-region food delivery group operating Foodpanda, Talabat, PedidosYa, Yemeksepeti and Glovo (controlling stake). Public XETRA: DHER; reached adjusted EBITDA profitability in 2023 after years of cash burn. |
Deliveroo deliveroo.com |  London | UK-led food delivery platform operating across the UK, France, Italy, Ireland and the Gulf. Public LSE: ROO; reached adjusted EBITDA profitability in 2023 and started share buybacks. |
Grab grab.com |  Singapore | Leading Southeast Asian super-app spanning food delivery, mobility, financial services and grocery across 8 countries. Public NASDAQ: GRAB; reached adjusted EBITDA profitability in early 2024. |
Zomato zomato.com |  Gurugram | Indian food delivery leader and quick-commerce operator via Blinkit (acquired 2022). Public BSE/NSE: ZOMATO; one of the few Indian internet IPOs trading well above issue price. |
Swiggy swiggy.com | Bengaluru | Indian food delivery and quick-commerce operator via Instamart. Listed on NSE/BSE in November 2024 at a ~$11.3B valuation; Prosus, SoftBank and Accel-backed. |
Rappi rappi.com |  Bogota | Latin American super-app operating across food delivery, grocery, payments and mobility in 9+ countries. Last raised at $5.25B valuation in 2021; SoftBank, T. Rowe Price and Sequoia-backed. |
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Key food delivery market trends
Path to GAAP profitability, the quick commerce shake-out and retail-media advertising scaling are reshaping food delivery right now.
Path to GAAP profitability completed
DoorDash hit first full-year GAAP profitability in 2024 after years of adjusted EBITDA losses; Delivery Hero, Just Eat Takeaway, Deliveroo and Grab all printed adjusted EBITDA-positive years through 2023-24. The category has structurally moved off growth-at-all-costs onto contribution-margin discipline. Posted dated: February 2026.
Grubhub sold out of Just Eat Takeaway
Just Eat Takeaway sold Grubhub to Wonder Group for ~$650M in late 2024, a fraction of the $7.3B paid in 2021. The exit ended a costly transatlantic combination and let Just Eat Takeaway refocus on Northern Europe and the UK. Posted dated: October 2025.
Quick commerce shake-out
Getir exited the UK, Germany, US, France, Italy, Netherlands and Spain in 2024 and retrenched to Turkey; Gorillas was absorbed and unwound; Gopuff cut footprint twice through 2023-24. The category survivors are Blinkit (Zomato), Instamart (Swiggy) and a smaller European footprint at Flink and Zapp. Posted dated: November 2025.
Grocery as the next leg of growth
DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grab have all built scaled grocery businesses through partnership with supermarkets, picking-in-store and quick-commerce dark stores. Grocery now accounts for a meaningful share of order growth at the major platforms as restaurant ordering matures. Posted dated: January 2026.
Commission caps and gig-worker classification
New York, Seattle and Minneapolis have all introduced minimum-pay rules for delivery couriers; the EU Platform Work Directive entered force in 2024; the UK has continued to refine gig-worker status. The combined effect has compressed contribution margin in regulated markets and pushed platforms toward subscription and ad revenue. Posted dated: March 2026.
Retail-media advertising scaling fast
DoorDash Ads and Uber Eats Ads have grown into the highest-margin revenue line for both companies. Restaurants now spend on sponsored placement at rates comparable to retail media on Amazon, and the platforms have rolled out CPG advertising on top of grocery delivery. Posted dated: April 2026.
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