Coming to America

Jitse Groen’s food delivery empire prepares to take on DoorDash and Uber Eats

- Natalia Drozdiak

The early months of the coronavirus pandemic were both a boon and a strain for U.S.-based food delivery companies. DoorDash, Grubhub, Postmates, and Uber Eats all saw a rush of business while still suffering from the dismal economics that had kept any of them from becoming profitable. It was unclear whether the lockdowns were a moment to shine or collapse.

So they started merging. In May, Uber Technologies Inc. was on the verge of acquiring Grubhub. The deal fell apart at the 11th hour, and Uber went on to buy Postmates for $2.65 billion; Grubhub ended up in the arms of Just Eat Takeaway.com NV, an Amsterdam-based company that had never had a presence in the U.S.

The deal, whose final value will be close to $7 billion, was an inversion of the normal course of things in tech, where it’s more common for high-flying U.S. businesses to sweep up smaller European companies. It also made Takeaway’s founder and chief executive officer, a 42-year-old Dutch billionaire named Jitse Groen, one of the most important players in U.S. food delivery.

The Grubhub deal is expected to close in the first half of this year, pending approval by Grubhub shareholders, meaning Groen could arrive in the U.S. just as a semblance of normalcy returns. That could make things tricky for delivery companies, whose stir-crazy customer base is probably eager to avail itself of the opportunity to do almost anything other than sitting in the house eating out of plastic containers.