Saturday, February 15, 2025

Uber pays $ 1.1 billion for Drizly

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While its core ridesharing business remains depressed by the pandemic, Uber is making another big bet that food delivery will remain a large part of its business.

On Tuesday, the company announced plans to acquire Drizly, a Boston-based maker of an alcohol delivery app, for approximately $ 1.1 billion in cash and stocks.

Uber plans to integrate Drizly into their system, allowing Drizly to reach Uber customers while Uber, well, lists more alcohol. It should be noted that alcohol sales have exploded in the pandemic.

Having raised approximately $ 85 million in his lifetime, through Pitchbook, Drizly is backed by investors such as Avenir Growth Capital, Tiger Global Management, Polaris Partners and Continental The partners.

There are few other ways to look at this deal as well, beyond Uber’s own decision to double down on its lifeline in the pandemic, food delivery.

SoftBank has long pursued a last mile delivery network with its investments – look no further than its bets on DoorDash in the United States, Rappi in Latin America and Didi in Asia, to name a few. Supported by the Japanese conglomerate, the acquisition of Uber is a deepening of this trend. Uber news also won’t be the first time that a SoftBank portfolio company has embarked on liquor delivery: Daily product delivery company GoPuff has acquired liquor chain Bevmo. ! for about $ 350 million in December. Philadelphia-based GoPuff CEO framed acquisition as a means for the company to enter California, the home port of Bevmo !.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, meanwhile, is known for his deal to set up the travel company Expedia, a strategy that appears to have carried over to his time at the rideshare company: Uber earlier acquired this year its food delivery rival Postmates for about $ 2.7 billion. . In 2019, she acquired a majority stake in the Cornershop grocery delivery startup.

INCREASE IN ROBINTERIES: As Robinhood himself faces a cocktail of conspiracy theories, consumer lawsuits and Congressional scrutiny in the GameStop saga, its investors are betting big that it will be a failure in its long-term history. The company raised an additional $ 2.4 billion, on top of the previously reported $ 1 billion. Ribbit Capital led the round and was joined by investors such as ICONIQ Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Index Ventures and NEA.

Robinhood’s collateral requirements with the clearinghouse have increased dramatically amid recent market volatility, leading the startup to restrict trading in some stocks, including those of GameStop. But the reality is that despite the blow to the app’s reputation, the impact of Reddit traders driving up Gamestop shares seems to have been a boon for stock trading, and therefore for Robinhood himself. . Among stock trading apps, Robinhood’s app still leads the way downloads last week. Read more.

Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
E-mail: lucinda.shen@fortune.com



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