Wonder, the food hall-delivery chain founded by billionaire entrepreneur Marc Lore, is acquiring third-party restaurant delivery company Grubhub for $650 million.
The companies on Wednesday said the deal will allow Wonder to offer restaurants, groceries and meal kits on a single ordering app.
It includes $500 million of senior notes and $150 million in cash. Wonder also announced that it has raised an additional $250 million from new investors for growth.
Chicago-based Grubhub is currently owned by Netherlands-based Just Eat Takeaway.com (JET), which bought Grubhub in 2020 for $7.3 billion. JET has been looking to sell the company for years. Grubhub has more than 375,000 businesses listed on its app and 200,000 couriers across the United States. But it has fallen far behind DoorDash and Uber Eats in terms of market share.
New York-based Wonder operates multibrand restaurants featuring concepts that it either created or acquired. It offers delivery, pickup and dine-in, though its focus has always been on delivery. It has 28 locations in the Northeast and expects to reach 90 by next year.
[Read our in-depth profile of Wonder: Marc Lore's Wonder is reinventing the meal.]
The acquisition will instantly give Wonder a nationwide network of restaurants and delivery people that can support it as it expands across the country.
Lore said in a statement that after the acquisition, a "curated selection" of Grubhub restaurants will become available on Wonder’s app alongside Wonder’s restaurants and meal kits from Blue Apron, which Wonder acquired last year. Wonder restaurants will also be available on Grubhub.
“Bringing Wonder and Grubhub together is the next step in our vision to create the super app for meal time, re-envisioning the future of food delivery,” he said.
Lore, the founder of Diapers.com and Jet.com, founded Wonder in 2018 with the goal of improving the food delivery experience. He has since raised $1.5 billion to help scale the business.
Wonder is unique for its vertically integrated business model. Meals are prepped in a central facility and shipped to restaurants, where they’re finished using just a few pieces of equipment. Wonder has its own ordering and logistics software and uses its own drivers to deliver its food.
The Grubhub acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.