DoorDash said Tuesday that demand for deliveries remained strong in the first quarter even as more Americans feel increasingly uneasy about the U.S. economy.
“We haven’t seen any changes in consumer behavior even if there are changes in consumer sentiment,” co-founder and CEO Tony Xu said in a call with investors. “Food really is the most resilient category.”
Total orders climbed 18% to 732 million, a quarterly record. DoorDash said demand for grocery delivery surpassed prior quarters, with more than 25% of active users ordering groceries. DoorDash said it also added U.S. restaurants to its platform and broadened its geographic reach.
Customers who use the company's DashPass and Wolt+ subscription services, which charge a monthly fee, feel delivery is more affordable, said Chief Financial Officer Ravi Inukonda. The San Francisco company said 22 million people subscribe to those services.
DoorDash confirmed that it will acquire Britain's Deliveroo for 2.9 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) in cash, expanding its business in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Deliveroo first announced it had received a bid from DoorDash just over a week ago.
It also said Tuesday that it had purchased SevenRooms, a New York company that makes hospitality management software, for $1.2 billion in cash. DoorDash said the deal will expand its offerings to merchants and help them grow in-store sales and customer marketing.
DoorDash expects the SevenRooms deal to close in the second half of this year, while the Deliveroo deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
The acquisitions are the biggest for DoorDash since 2022, when it bought Finnish rival Wolt Enterprises for $8.1 billion. That deal brought DoorDash into 22 countries where it didn't already operate, including Germany and Israel.
With the addition of Deliveroo, Xu said DoorDash will operate in 45 countries, 30 of them in Europe. Deliveroo, which was founded in 2013, served 7 million monthly active users last year. DoorDash, founded the same year, has 42 million monthly active users.
Investors expressed some concern about DoorDash's ability to generate profits as it integrates Deliveroo. DoorDash shares dropped nearly 9% Tuesday.
Inukonda said the increasing scale will help drive profitability.
“Our goal is to improve unit economics. Take that and continue to drive improvements in retention and order frequency, which ultimately drive scale. And that scale drives profitability in the business,” he said.
Revenue at DoorDash rose 21% to a quarterly record of $3.03 billion. That was short of Wall Street’s forecast of $3.09 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
Net income was $193 million, a year after the company reported a $23 million loss for the January-March period. Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned 44 cents per share, topping Wall Street expectations by a nickel.
FILE - A DoorDash sign is posted on the door of a Dunkin' Donuts franchise, Feb. 27, 2023, in Methuen, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
