Contributing editor, Peter Backman, is a long-term foodservice sector guru and founder of theDelivery.World, a platform that connects the delivery sector and makes sense of the myriad changes and challenges that affect the sector across the globe.
The global restaurant delivery landscape is undergoing a dramatic restructuring, with recent months witnessing a flurry of high-profile demergers, acquisitions, and IPOs that are redrawing competitive boundaries.
Delivery Hero’s strategic move to list Talabat on the Dubai Stock Exchange in December 2024 represents a case study in unlocking value. While retaining an 80% stake, Delivery Hero’s partial IPO valued the Middle Eastern delivery powerhouse at $10.2 billion. This split allows Delivery Hero to showcase Talabat’s impressive profitability metrics while maintaining control of its crown jewel. The move gives Talabat greater strategic flexibility to focus on its strong Middle Eastern markets while providing Delivery Hero with much-needed capital to strengthen its remaining portfolio.
Meanwhile, the restaurant delivery sector’s most troubled marriage finally ended. Just Eat Takeaway’s sale of Grubhub to Wonder for $650 million in November 2024 marked an inglorious conclusion to what was once a $7.3 billion acquisition.
The fire-sale price reflects Grubhub’s continued market share erosion and the damaging impact of fee caps in core markets like New York City. For Wonder, a ghost kitchen operator positioning itself as a ‘super app for mealtime’, the acquisition represents an opportunity to rapidly scale its reach across the northeastern United States.
The most recent announcement came with Prosus’s $4.3 billion bid to acquire Just Eat Takeaway. The deal seems strategically coherent for Prosus, which already holds a 100% stake in Brazilian delivery giant iFood, a 28% stake in Delivery Hero, and a 4% stake in Swiggy, the Indian delivery company. This acquisition would dramatically consolidate Prosus’s position in European markets where JET holds leadership positions.
These deals reflect some fundamental shifts in the delivery sector’s strategic thinking. First, there’s a clear recognition that geographic focus trumps global sprawl – seen in both Talabat’s concentration on the Middle East and JET’s post-Grubhub focus on Europe. The sector is finally abandoning the ‘growth at all costs’ mentality that defined its early years.
Second, these moves highlight the increasing importance of adjacent verticals beyond restaurant delivery. Wonder’s acquisition of Grubhub signals the growing convergence between ghost kitchens and delivery platforms, while Delivery Hero’s portfolio reorganization gives each unit more flexibility to expand into grocery and convenience delivery.
Third, profitability has clearly moved to center stage. Delivery Hero’s isolation of Talabat’s positive financial metrics demonstrates how investors now demand concrete paths to profitability rather than vague promises of future returns.
The industry’s consolidation phase appears far from over. With Swiggy’s recent IPO and ongoing speculation about potential combinations between players like Deliveroo and DoorDash, 2025 promises more strategic realignment. As economic headwinds intensify and investor patience wanes, expect further creative dealmaking aimed at achieving sustainable profitability.
The restaurant delivery landscape that emerges from this restructuring will likely feature fewer but stronger players with clearer geographic focus, more diversified revenue streams, and – perhaps most importantly – business models that can finally deliver the profits that have proven so elusive in this sector’s tumultuous adolescence.
