Uber Buys Drizly for $1.1B
February 02, 2021
Uber and Drizly have reached an
agreement for Uber to acquire Drizly for approximately $1.1 billion in stock and
cash.
Drizly is the leading on-demand alcohol marketplace in the United States,
available and designed to be fully compliant with local regulations in more than
1,400 cities across a majority of US states. Drizly works with thousands of
local merchants to provide consumers with an incredible selection of beer, wine,
and spirits with competitive, transparent pricing.
After the completion of the transaction, Drizly will become a wholly owned
subsidiary of Uber. Drizly’s marketplace will eventually be integrated with the
Uber Eats app, while also maintaining a separate Drizly app.
Drizly plans to innovate and expand independently in its fast-growing and
competitive sector, while also gaining access to the advanced mobile marketplace
technologies of the world’s largest food delivery and ridesharing platform.
Merchants on Drizly will be able to benefit from Uber’s best-in-class routing
technology and significant consumer base. Delivery drivers will have even more
ways to earn. And Uber’s rewards and subscription programs will be able to
deliver even greater value to consumers with new benefits and perks on Drizly.
“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. That’s why we’ve been branching into
new categories like groceries, prescriptions and, now, alcohol. Cory and his
amazing team have built Drizly into an incredible success story, profitably
growing gross bookings more than 300 percent 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,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
“Drizly
has spent the last 8 years building the infrastructure, technology, and
partnerships to bring the consumer a shopping experience they deserve. It’s a
proud day for the Drizly team as we recognize what we’ve accomplished to date
but also with the humility that much remains to be done to fulfill our vision.
With this in mind, we are thrilled to join a world-class Uber team whose
platform will accelerate Drizly on its mission to be there when it
matters—committed to life’s moments and the people who create them,” said Drizly
co-founder and CEO Cory Rellas.
Uber currently anticipates that more than 90 percent of the consideration to be
paid to the Drizly stockholders in the transaction will consist of shares of
Uber common stock, with the balance to be paid in cash. The acquisition is
subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions and is
expected to close within the first half of 2021. |