Uber will acquire Drizly for approximately $1.1 billion in stock and cash, with plans to integrate the on-demand alcohol marketplace into the Uber Eats app while maintaining a separate Drizly app. The move will help Uber’s efforts to build out its delivery capabilities.
Drizly is available in more than 1,400 cities across the U.S., where it works with local retailers to deliver beer, wine and spirits. Following the acquisition, the service will continue to innovate and expand independently while also gaining access to Uber’s mobile marketplace technologies.
“Wherever you want to go and whatever you need to get, our goal at Uber is to make people’s lives a little bit easier,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber in a statement. “That’s why we’ve been branching into new categories like groceries, prescriptions and, now, alcohol. [Drizly CEO and Co-Founder] Cory [Rellas] and his amazing team have built Drizly into an incredible success story, profitably growing gross bookings more than 300% year-over-year. By bringing Drizly into the Uber family, we can accelerate that trajectory by exposing Drizly to the Uber audience and expanding its geographic presence into our global footprint in the years ahead.”
The deal is similar to Uber’s acquisition of Postmates in June 2020. That transaction provided Uber with access to delivery capabilities for groceries, essentials and other retail goods, and combined both companies’ delivery networks to improve overall efficiency.
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However, not all of Uber’s expansions are being made through acquisitions. In January 2021, Uber partnered with Bringg to give the delivery and fulfillment cloud platform’s retail clients access to drivers through Uber Direct, enabling them to provide same-day and next-day delivery.
