Uber, Drizly
Drizly delivers beer, wine, and spirits to customers in collaboration with local merchants in the US. Credit: Thanh Serious on Unsplash.

Uber Technologies, which owns food delivery platform Uber Eats and ridesharing platform Uber, has agreed to buy US-based on-demand alcohol marketplace Drizly in a stock and cash deal valued at around $1.1bn.

Uber expects to pay over 90% of the consideration to Drizly stockholders in shares of Uber common stock and the rest in cash.

The deal, subject to regulatory approvals, should close in the first half of this year.

Operating in compliance with local regulations in over 1,400 cities across the majority of the US states, Drizly delivers beer, wine and spirits to customers in collaboration with local merchants.

Following the acquisition, Drizly will become a fully owned subsidiary of Uber.

Uber plans to eventually integrate Drizly’s marketplace to its food delivery platform while maintaining a separate Drizly app.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said: “Wherever you want to go and whatever you need to get, our goal at Uber is to make people’s lives a little bit easier. That’s why we’ve been branching into new categories like groceries, prescriptions and, now, alcohol.

“Cory and his amazing team have built Drizly 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.”

The deal could accelerate Drizly’s innovation and expansion by leveraging Uber’s mobile marketplace technologies.

Additionally, merchants on Drizly will benefit from Uber’s routing technology and its consumer base.

Drizly co-founder and CEO Cory Rellas said: “Drizly has spent the last 8 years building the infrastructure, technology, and partnerships to bring the consumer a shopping experience they deserve. It’s a proud day for the Drizly team as we recognize what we’ve accomplished to date but also with the humility that much remains to be done to fulfil our vision.

“With this in mind, we are thrilled to join a world-class Uber team whose platform will accelerate Drizly on its mission to be there when it matters—committed to life’s moments and the people who create them.”

With this latest purchase, Uber’s rewards and subscription programmes will be able to offer its customers benefits and perks on Drizly.