Beyond Delivery: DoorDash Posts First Annual Profit, Signals Global Ambitions with Billions in Acquisitions

SAN FRANCISCO – Fresh off its first-ever profitable year, U.S. food delivery leader DoorDash is signaling a dramatic expansion of its business, moving aggressively beyond restaurant delivery with a series of strategic acquisitions aimed at transforming it into a global technology platform for local commerce.

The company, which reported its latest financial results on Wednesday, has firmly established its dominance in the U.S. market, capturing approximately two-thirds of restaurant delivery sales over competitors like Uber Eats and Grubhub. This market leadership, fueled by a savvy early expansion into suburban areas that was accelerated by the pandemic, has impressed investors, driving DoorDash’s market capitalization to over $108 billion and more than doubling its share price in the past year.

While finishing 2024 with an annual profit marks a major milestone, recent activity reveals a much grander vision. DoorDash has unveiled a multi-billion dollar M&A strategy that lays the groundwork for global reach and deep integration into the technology infrastructure of its merchant partners.

In May, the company announced two major proposed acquisitions. The first is a nearly $4 billion deal for Deliveroo, a leading meal delivery service in the United. Kingdom. This move, combined with its 2022 acquisition of Finland-based Wolt, would expand DoorDash’s presence to over 40 countries and solidify its core delivery business on an international scale.

Simultaneously, DoorDash announced a $1.2 billion deal to acquire SevenRooms, a hospitality software company. SevenRooms provides tools that help restaurants and hotels manage reservations, bookings, and customer relationships, directly addressing a key need for merchants.

“While DoorDash solved a massive problem for merchants during the pandemic… [another] challenge ended up being, ‘How do you grow my actual volume in my physical store, because those are my most profitable consumers?’” said Parisa Sadrzadeh, who leads the expansion of DoorDash’s merchant software suite.

The buying spree continued with the $175 million acquisition of advertising technology startup Symbiosys. This deal is set to enhance DoorDash’s rapidly growing advertising business, which crossed $1 billion in annualized revenue in 2024. The new technology will help brands on the DoorDash platform reach customers across the wider web, tapping into a highly profitable revenue stream.

Beyond these major deals, the company continues to broaden its delivery partnerships into new categories, including grocery, pharmacy, sporting goods, and alcohol, reinforcing its ambition to become the go-to service for all local commerce.

This ambitious strategy shows a company leveraging its dominant position not just to grow, but to fundamentally evolve. While the success of these new ventures is yet to be determined, CEO Tony Xu remains bullish on the company’s potential, noting that even its most established business has immense room for growth.

“If you took our oldest area of exploration, U.S. restaurants … we’re still single-digit percentages of the U.S. restaurant industry sales,” Xu stated on a recent earnings call. “If you look at globally, that number would be even smaller.”