Uber to acquire Drizly for $1.1bn
Founded in 2012, Drizly is North America’s largest ecommerce alcohol vendor, covering beer, wine and spirits via retail partners.
The pandemic has helped drive a shift towards ecommerce: in 2020 Drizly grew more than 350% compared to 2019; doubling the number of retail partners on its platform, while achieving sustained profitability. Drizly also forecasts that 20% of off-premise alcohol sales will be carried out online by 2025 – compared to 2% at the start of 2020.
The platform has been designed to be compliant with the US’ three-tier alcohol sales system and local regulations in more than 1,400 cities across most US states.
Upon 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 says it will continue to innovate and expand independently in the alcohol ecommerce 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,” says the company.
The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close within the first half of 2021.
“We have been branching into new categories like groceries, prescriptions and, now, alcohol,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. “Drizly CEO Cory Rellas and his amazing team have built the company into an incredible success story, profitably growing gross bookings more than 300% 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.”
