The roundup: Food delivery platforms are on an expansion tear as they look to new geographies and services to broaden their customer bases and make their offerings stickier.

• DoorDash is spending $5.1 billion to acquire UK-based delivery company Deliveroo and restaurant bookings platform SevenRooms.
• Uber will shell out $700 million for an 85% stake in Turkish food and grocery delivery platform Trendyol Go.
• Food hall company and Grubhub owner Wonder raised $600 million in a funding round that valued the company at over $7 billion; the funds will be used to double its physical retail presence and expand beyond the New York metro area.
• Instacart launched Fizz, a delivery app that enables group ordering of snacks and drinks (including alcohol).

The big picture: The flurry of activity in the food delivery space reflects resilient demand, particularly from Gen Z and millennials. But it also offers insight into how companies plan to protect their businesses from economic uncertainty and declining US consumer sentiment.

DoorDash is hedging its bets. Like Instacart, DoorDash hasn’t “seen any changes in consumer behavior even if there are changes in consumer sentiment,” CEO Tony Xu said.

• Even so, its Deliveroo acquisition would give it a presence in over 40 countries, which could offset weakness in its home market.
• Having SevenRooms in its arsenal will strengthen DoorDash’s B2B business, enabling it to offer more services to merchants while improving profitability.

Uber Eats is broadening its scope. That applies in both geographic and strategic terms.

• Its Trendyol acquisition will give Uber instant entry into Turkey’s food delivery market and control over a thriving business that generated $2 billion in gross bookings and delivered over 200 million orders in 2024.
• At the same time, Uber is growing its non-restaurant business with retail partners like Family Dollar, Petco, and 1-800-Flowers as it looks to expand its audience and prod existing users to order more often.

Instacart is going after Gen Z. Fizz is squarely aimed at younger consumers, from its Gen Z-oriented branding to its integration with party-planning app Partiful to its $5 flat delivery fee, which is lower than the $7.99 Instacart currently charges nonmembers.

• The rationale is obvious: Gen Zers are some of the most enthusiastic users of delivery apps, with roughly 2 in 5 using them to order food and drinks at least once per week, per YouGov data.
• But they’re not as attached to grocery services like Instacart, which is why the company is trying to lure them in with its new, cheaper offering as well as its Uber Eats partnership.

Our take: Demand for food delivery is resilient—for now—as consumers prioritize convenience and take advantage of the wider array of services that platforms now offer.

As with other areas of discretionary spending, there is a risk that tariffs will disrupt the category’s momentum. But, as DoorDash’s Xu pointed out, events previously expected to dent demand—such as high inflation and the end of the pandemic—failed to do so, a sign of how ingrained such services have become.