DoorDash to Buy Instacart for $17 Billion in Grocery Delivery Bet

DoorDash will pay $65 per share — an equity value of roughly $17 billion — to acquire Instacart (Maplebear Inc.), a deal that values the grocery delivery platform at a 26 percent premium to its closing price on October 22, the last trading day before media reports of a possible transaction surfaced.

Instacart's board has unanimously approved the definitive agreement. At least 75 percent of the consideration will be paid in cash, with Instacart stockholders able to elect cash, DoorDash stock, or a mix, subject to a cap that limits DoorDash stock to 25 percent of the aggregate consideration. Stockholders holding about 19 percent of Instacart's outstanding shares have already agreed to vote in favor.

The structure gives shareholders three options per share: $65 in cash, 0.3372 shares of DoorDash common stock, or a blend of $48.75 in cash plus 0.0843 DoorDash shares. If stock is oversubscribed, shareholders receive it on a prorated basis.

What does this change for grocers and operators?

For DoorDash and Instacart, the logic is that the two companies serve different missions in a household's week: families turn to Instacart for the big weekly shop and to DoorDash for meals and almost anything else within an hour. The combined entity would pair DoorDash's delivery network with Instacart's grocery and fulfillment technology — available in both apps and on stores' own websites — plus the advertising and AI tools each has built.

The companies framed the deal as a defensive play for local commerce. "A grocer or retailer running on thin margins cannot build all of that alone, and with AI, the playing field risks being tilted even further away from local commerce," the release stated, referring to the largest online retailers building their own fleets, warehouses, membership programs, and AI shopping assistants.

Tony Xu, co-founder and CEO of DoorDash, pointed to the operational difficulty of the category. "Grocery is one of the hardest things to get right online. Someone has to pick a ripe avocado, find a substitute you'd choose yourself, and get the ice cream to you before it melts," Xu said. "It's still early innings, but we know that when more people shop local, more dollars stay local."

Chris Rogers, CEO of Instacart, said the 14-year-old company has "transformed online grocery by helping retailers of all sizes compete and grow" and that combining its purpose-built grocery technology with DoorDash's global reach and logistics "can accelerate innovation across the grocery industry."

The numbers DoorDash is promising

DoorDash laid out concrete expected benefits from the deal:

• More choice: Instacart customers could shop at more than 50,000 additional stores, on top of the nearly 100,000 already on the platform.
• Membership savings: DashPass and Instacart+ members would pay one fee instead of two — an estimated $100 million per year in combined savings on membership fees alone.
• Worker earnings: Dashers and Shoppers would get more ways to earn, mixing grocery orders on quiet days with restaurant orders at peak times.

DoorDash also made two post-close commitments: no grocery exclusivity, meaning local grocers can keep working with any delivery platform they choose, and Instacart Shoppers retain their current flexibility, including batch-acceptance information and the choice of whether to take DoorDash orders at all.

Financing and the road to closing

DoorDash expects to fund the cash portion with cash on hand and debt. It has signed a financing commitment letter with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. for a 364-day senior unsecured bridge loan facility, and the deal carries no financing condition. The company is targeting a capital structure that maintains investment-grade ratings.

After closing, DoorDash intends to keep Instacart's brand, enterprise technology products, and app. Until then, the two companies operate as separate, independent businesses.

The transaction is expected to close between the end of 2027 and the first half of 2028, pending Instacart stockholder approval, expiration of the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust waiting period, and regulatory clearances in Canada and Israel — a long runway during which antitrust scrutiny of a delivery consolidation this size will be the deal's biggest variable.