DoorDash buying international food delivery platform in deal valued at $8.1B

DoorDash is buying an international food delivery platform in a deal valued at $8.1 billion. 

DoorDash announced on Tuesday it entered an all-stock transaction with Wolt, an international food delivery platform with 4,000 employees and operations in 23 countries. 

The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of 2022. 

“DoorDash and Wolt share a vision to build a global platform for local commerce that empowers the communities we operate in,” co-founder and CEO of DoorDash Tony Xu said. “Under the leadership of Miki Kuusi, Wolt has built a culture of optimism, operational rigor, and bias for action that matches our own.”

“By joining forces, we believe we will accelerate our product development, bring greater focus to each of our markets, and improve the value we provide to consumers, merchants, as well as Dashers and couriers around the world,” he added.

Kuusi, the co-Founder and CEO of Wolt, will run DoorDash International and report directly to Xu once the deal is closed. 

“DoorDash has built an incredible business in one of the most significant markets in the world, while we came from a small home country and had to master the art of expansion very early on,” Kuusi said. “During this process, we’ve come to appreciate the many similarities of our two teams, cultures and companies, as we’ve been molded by similar circumstances. We’re incredibly excited to be joining forces with Tony and the DoorDash team to build something even greater together.”

The deal comes after DoorDash announced it will be adding more security features to its platform to protect drivers.