DoorDash Agrees to Buy Instacart in $17 Billion Grocery Delivery Deal

DoorDash has agreed to buy Instacart for about $17 billion, a deal that would combine the biggest U.S. food delivery app with the company that built its business on grocery delivery. The two companies announced the definitive agreement on Oct. 29, 2026, valuing Instacart, whose corporate name is Maplebear Inc., at $65.00 a share.

Key figures: ~$17B equity value · $65.00 per share (26% premium) · at least 75% cash · close expected end of 2027 to first half of 2028 · DoorDash Q3 revenue $4.6B (+34%)

The Deal at a Glance

Size: about $17 billion in equity value. The $65 price is a 26% premium to Instacart’s close on Oct. 22, the last trading day before media reports of a possible deal.

Terms: at least 75% of the total will be paid in cash, and no more than 25% in DoorDash stock. Each Instacart shareholder can choose $65 in cash, 0.3372 DoorDash shares, or a mix of $48.75 in cash plus 0.0843 DoorDash shares, subject to proration if too many choose stock. DoorDash plans to pay the cash with money on hand and new debt, backed by a 364-day bridge loan commitment from JPMorgan Chase Bank. There is no financing condition.

Timeline: the companies expect the deal to close at the end of 2027 or in the first half of 2028. It needs approval from Instacart shareholders, the end of the U.S. antitrust waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, and other regulatory approvals, including in Canada and Israel. Holders of about 19% of Instacart’s shares have agreed to vote for it. Until closing, the companies will run separately.

Impact: DoorDash said Instacart customers could shop at more than 50,000 more stores, on top of nearly 100,000 already on Instacart. Members of DashPass and Instacart+ would pay one fee instead of two, which DoorDash estimates would save them about $100 million a year. DoorDash said it would keep the Instacart brand, app and enterprise technology, and would not demand grocery exclusivity, so local grocers could keep using any delivery platform.

DoorDash’s Record Quarter Behind the Bid

DoorDash announced the deal alongside its third-quarter results, which set company records for order value, revenue and profit. Total orders rose 28% from a year earlier to 993 million. Marketplace gross order value, the total value of orders placed, rose 36% to $33.9 billion. Revenue climbed 34% to $4.6 billion, and net income attributable to shareholders rose 91% to $466 million. Adjusted EBITDA rose 41% to $1.06 billion.

Part of that growth came from DoorDash’s purchase of the British delivery company Deliveroo. Excluding Deliveroo, orders grew 17%, order value 23% and revenue 23%, the company said.

By the Numbers: Five Quarters of DoorDash Growth

Quarterly revenue rose from $3.446 billion in the third quarter of 2025 to $4.616 billion a year later, an increase of $1.17 billion, a TBR calculation from DoorDash’s figures. From the second quarter to the third, revenue rose about 3.6%. Net income more than doubled from the second quarter’s $200 million. The $17 billion price for Instacart is roughly 3.7 times DoorDash’s third-quarter revenue, another TBR calculation.

The deal would also deepen DoorDash’s lead in delivery spending. Consumer Edge, a market data firm, estimated that 59% of spending on major U.S. delivery apps in the third quarter went to DoorDash, up from 44% in the second quarter of 2021, with roughly 18% each going to Instacart and Uber Eats, FoodNavigator reported. Those figures include both grocery and restaurant orders.

What It Could Mean in Greater Boston

Both apps operate across Massachusetts, delivering from the region’s restaurants and supermarkets, including big-box options such as the store in our Wegmans Burlington store guide. Nothing changes for customers or for Instacart’s independent shoppers before the deal closes, and DoorDash said shoppers could choose whether to take DoorDash orders afterward.

Reaction and Antitrust Questions

DoorDash co-founder and CEO Tony Xu said in the announcement: “Grocery is one of the hardest things to get right online.” Instacart CEO Chris Rogers said joining DoorDash would let Instacart “do even more” for retailers.

Others raised competition concerns. “As a general economic principle, less competition and more consolidation tends to be worse for consumers,” Randall Sargent, a grocery and retail partner at the consulting firm Oliver Wyman, told the Associated Press, in a story published by Fortune. Alex Frederick, a senior foodtech analyst at PitchBook, told FoodNavigator that the merger is a bet that “the next phase of US delivery will be won on the weekly grocery order rather than the takeout order.” Investing.com, citing Reuters, reported that the deal may draw scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission. Investing.com also reported that DoorDash shares rose about 6% after the announcement.

For more of this week’s deal news, see our Oct. 29 business report.

Sources

• DoorDash: DoorDash to Acquire Instacart to Help Local Stores Win (Oct. 29, 2026)
• DoorDash Investor Relations: Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results
• Fortune / Associated Press: DoorDash offers $17 billion for Instacart
• FoodNavigator: DoorDash’s Instacart deal, CPG reach and antitrust concerns

Additional sources

• Instacart Newsroom: joint announcement
• Investing.com / Reuters: Deal may draw FTC scrutiny
• Investing.com: DoorDash Q3 2026 earnings call transcript