Over the past several years, consumer discretionary stock DoorDash (NASDAQ: DASH) has undoubtedly been one of the most impressive stories in the market. As of the Sept. 16 close, shares have achieved a staggering three-year return of approximately 308%.
In a key development, DoorDash just recently extended its footprint further outside the United States. On Sept. 9, Reuters reported that the European Commission approved DoorDash’s acquisition of the British food delivery company Deliveroo (LON: ROO).
So, could this be a game-changing move for DoorDash? We’ll break down the company’s business to answer that question below.
DASH Gets Ready to Enter 10 New Markets
First off, let’s get a lay of the land when it comes to DoorDash’s U.S. versus international revenue. In 2024, 88% the company’s revenue came from the United States. To this point, a significant portion of DoorDash’s international revenue has come from its acquisition of Wolt back in 2022.
From 2022 to 2024, DoorDash’s international revenue rose nearly 300% from $332 million to $1.32 billion. That far outpaces the approximately 50% growth of DoorDash’s U.S. revenue over that time, showing that international markets are a key growth driver for the firm. Currently, Wolt operates in 28 countries.
This includes the Nordics, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Japan, Germany, and Israel.
It makes sense why DoorDash has decided to buy Deliveroo; it operates in the countries that Wolt does not. Specifically, the United Kingdom and Ireland accounted for 60% of Deliveroo’s gross transaction value (GTV) in 2024.
The other 40% came from France, Italy, Hong Kong, Belgium, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar. Clearly, with Deliveroo, DoorDash is expanding its presence to several completely new markets.
Importantly, many of these countries have among the largest economies in the world. The United Kingdom, France, and Italy all rank within the top 10 in terms of gross domestic product (GDP).
Additionally, Ireland, Singapore, and Qatar are some of the wealthiest countries in the world. In 2024, they all ranked in the top ten in GDP per capita. That’s important when considering DoorDash and Deliveroo’s service, which is more about convenience than necessity.
This makes entering prosperous markets a key to success.
Deliveroo’s Performance Is Weak, But Opportunities to Improve Exist
On the flip side, DoorDash is now taking over a company in Deliveroo that has done the opposite of impressing markets. To adjust for the market reaction to the deal, which came to light in April, let's look at Deliveroo’s returns through the end of March 2025.
To that point, they were down nearly 58% since the stock’s IPO in 2021. However, things have been a bit better over the two years ended March 31, with shares up around 31%. The company has also been growing very slowly compared to DoorDash. Its average quarterly revenue growth rate over the past 12 quarters is only 5.4%.
For DoorDash, the figure is 28.5%. Interestingly, however, Deliveroo does display strength in some areas.
The company’s revenue take rate as a percentage of GTV was 27.6% in the first half of 2025. This figure measures the company's revenue for every dollar of sales through its platform.
The number was more than double DoorDash’s most comparable metric: net revenue margin, which stood at 13.5% last quarter.
Here, there may be a significant opportunity for DoorDash to improve Deliveroo.
The divergence in these figures suggests that Deliveroo’s fees, either to merchants, consumers, or both, are too high. This has the effect of limiting GTV growth, which limits market share gains. Meanwhile, DoorDash has approximately 61% market share in U.S. food delivery, partially because its take rate is low.
DoorDash could lower Deliveroo’s fees, helping the company take market share, following the playbook DoorDash itself has used to succeed. With Deliveroo’s take rate being so much higher than DoorDash’s, there is significant room to make this strategy work.
DASH and Deliveroo: A Marriage With Upside Potential
With DoorDash entering new markets through Deliveroo and avenues to increase the company’s market share, the deal has a solid opportunity to be accretive to DoorDash shares in the long term.
The massive growth of DoorDash’s international business since 2022 adds weight to this argument.
Still, investors should prepare for growing pains that could affect the stock in the near term.
Turning around Deliveroo won’t happen overnight, and unexpected costs associated with its integration could rear their ugly heads.
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The article "DoorDash Buys Deliveroo: A Game Changer?" first appeared on MarketBeat.
