Just Eat Takeaway is selling Grubhub to Wonder, a delivery-focused restaurant chain, for $650 million just four years after acquiring the U.S. food delivery app in a multibillion-dollar deal. The Netherlands-based food delivery group, Europe’s largest, has been evaluating a departure from the U.S. since 2022 after a long and difficult road.
Grubhub struggles with slow growth, eyes reinvention under Wonder
Just Eat Takeaway acquired Grubhub in a $7.3 billion deal reached back in June 2020, aiming to create the world’s largest food delivery service outside of China. The move proved regrettable for Just Eat Takeaway, as reports indicate that shares had dropped by almost 90% since the acquisition.
Grubhub has struggled in a market dominated by DoorDash, which commands a reported 67% share of the market, and by Uber Eats, the global leader in food delivery outside of China. With GrubHub out of sight, Just Eat Takeaway will now return its focus to Europe, particularly the U.K. and the Netherlands, where it has consistently ruled the roost. Despite Uber Eats’ global reach, Just Eat Takeaway commands a larger market share in countries like the U.K., where drivers typically can earn more per hour than those working for Uber Eats.
A food delivery super app: How Wonder aims to stand out
With Just Eat Takeaway relinquishing control, Wonder aims to reinvent Grubhub and integrate it into its core network. Leveraging Grubhub’s restaurant network and customer base, the food delivery group wants to transform food preparation and delivery as we know it.
With its unique end-to-end service model, Wonder unifies the entire process from cooking to delivery. Kicking off this ambitious mission in early 2024, Wonder secured $700 million in funding to develop what it calls the “super app of mealtime.” This all-in-one platform will allow customers to order from up to 30 different restaurants in a single transaction, with meals delivered in around 30 minutes. Those restaurants, in effect, are just menu concepts linked to a group of chefs. The brands do not exist outside of the Wonder ecosystem.
A “delivery-first food hall”
Wonder’s founder, Marc Lore, described their preparation spaces in an interview with Restaurant Business as a “delivery-first food hall”—a 2,800-square-foot kitchen designed to deliver “fully integrated, high-quality, delivery-only food.” These innovative spaces bring multiple restaurant concepts under one roof, with chefs working collaboratively on the same floor to streamline operations. With Wonder, you can order everything from a cheesesteak to zucchini souvlaki—and have it all delivered in one bag. It’s this kind of convenience and flexibility they hope will have consumers turn away from traditional courier options for good.
Grubhub, now holding just 8% of the U.S. meal delivery market as of March 2024, finds itself at a critical juncture alongside these developments. Wonder sees this as a unique opportunity, tapping into Grubhub’s established driver network and delivery technology to fuel its ambitious vision and revitalize both brands in a fiercely competitive landscape. Unlike others, Wonder’s offerings are exclusive to its platform, ensuring a seamless experience, where mistakes can be fixed quickly. This approach eliminates slow deliveries, unreliable drivers and poor communication between customers and their orders.
“This could be the Amazon of food and beverage,” Lore told The New York Times.
Transforming food delivery from an occasional indulgence into an everyday essential
At the heart of Lore’s vision for Wonder is versatility—transforming food delivery from an occasional indulgence into an everyday essential. While Wonder aims to become a “super app” for mealtime, it’s still in the process of defining what that truly means, and perhaps it is a good thing. Focusing on convenience and fast deliveries might turn a few heads, but to make a real impact, Wonder will need to demonstrate that they’re offering something routinely indispensable for consumers.
Photo by tonodiaz/Freepik.com
