The deal would bring together two delivery giants and provide a major boost for DoorDash’s growing grocery business.

The biggest food delivery app in the U.S. may be about to get even bigger.

DoorDash is in “advanced talks” to acquire grocery delivery service Instacart, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The deal would bring together two delivery giants and provide a major boost for DoorDash’s growing grocery business.

It follows reports in recent days by The Information and Bloomberg that Instacart was considering a sale, with DoorDash rival Uber named as another interested party.

Instacart stock has surged on the news, while DoorDash and Uber shares have slumped.

The potential DoorDash-Instacart deal could value Instacart at $17 billion and could be finalized as soon as this week, per the Journal. The report cited people familiar with the matter and said there are no guarantees that a sale will happen.

An Instacart spokesperson declined to comment on the reports. DoorDash also declined to comment.

Though DoorDash began as a restaurant delivery service, it has rapidly expanded into delivering groceries and other products using its large courier network. It now offers delivery from many of the biggest grocery chains in the U.S., including Albertsons and Kroger, and in February, it said it was the largest grocery and retail delivery app in the country by order volume last year.

Related:DoorDash to acquire Instacart for $17B

DoorDash does not report financial details of those segments individually, but has said it has more than 200,000 grocery and retail stores on its marketplace.

Instacart, meanwhile, has long been a leader in third-party grocery delivery, with more than 2,200 grocery store brands and 100,000 stores on its marketplace.

It is smaller than DoorDash overall, with $3.75 billion in revenue last year compared to $13.72 billion for DoorDash. And though it has been generating revenue growth, Instacart has also been facing pressure from DoorDash and fellow food delivery rival Uber Eats as they push further into grocery.

According to credit and debit data from Consumer Edge, DoorDash’s share of spending across major delivery apps rose from 44% in the second quarter of 2021 to 59% in the third quarter of 2026, while Uber Eats’ rose from 16% to 18%. Instacart’s share fell from 26% to 18% over that same period. Those numbers cover all delivery categories, not just groceries.

“These trends partly reflect the expansion of DoorDash and Uber Eats into grocery, convenience and other retail categories, increasingly competing in areas historically associated with Instacart,” said Michael Gunther, SVP of research and market intelligence at Consumer Edge, in a statement.

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Based on that data, acquiring Instacart would significantly increase DoorDash’s share of the grocery delivery market, putting it in closer competition with other grocery delivery leaders Walmart and Amazon.

It would be DoorDash’s third major acquisition in two years, following its purchases of U.K.-based delivery app Deliveroo and the SevenRooms reservation platform last year.

And it would continue to concentrate the food delivery business into the hands of just a few large players. Since 2018, DoorDash and Uber have acquired a number of smaller U.S. rivals, including Caviar, Postmates, and the alcohol delivery service Drizly, as well as international delivery services Wolt and Getir.

Uber also has a pending deal to acquire European giant Delivery Hero, and earlier this month, it announced plans to buy ezCater, the big workplace catering marketplace, for $2.3 billion in cash.

Source https://www.nrn.com/restaurant-technology/doordash-is-nearing-a-deal-to-buy-instacart-report-says