Uber To Acquire Remaining Share Of On-Demand Grocer Cornershop

Uber Technologies UBER is acquiring the remaining shares in Cornershop, an on-demand grocery delivery platform. According to a Securities and Exchange filing this past weekend, Uber will acquire the remaining 47% of the company it doesn't already own.

Cornershop CEO Oskar Hjertonsson confirmed the news on Twitter Monday morning.

"When building your future with someone … at some point you gotta go all-in!" he tweeted.

In the tweet series, Hjertonsson thanked everyone "who believed in us and who helped build this … with an extra shout out to investors, retailer partners, shoppers and our customers."

In the SEC filing, Uber said it was acquiring the remaining 47% of Cornershop for approximately 29 million shares in Uber, which was down about 3% in mid-morning trading Monday to $48.30 per share. Further terms were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in July.

Uber acquired 53% of Cornershop in 2019 when it primarily served the Latin America market. Cornershop is now in Canada and parts of the U.S. as well.

On its Q1 earnings call, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Cornershop was an important part of the Uber Eats business, which has been growing steadily since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cornershop, along with Uber's earlier announced acquisitions of Drizly and Postmates, benefit from the company's overall mobility business.

"Not only do we see our mobility business driving Delivery and Eats, but we expect to see Delivery and Eats then driving Cornershop, driving Drizly when that deal closes, et cetera — kind of this chain reaction between businesses," he said. "So we're pretty excited about it. And by no means do we think we are fully optimized as it relates to this kind of activity."

In February, Uber acquired Drizly. Founded eight years ago, Drizly is an online marketplace for alcohol, providing 60 minutes or less delivery in over 1,400 cities in the U.S. and Canada. The company, founded by CEO Cory Rellas and Justin Robinson, partners with retailers and producers of beer, wine and spirits to deliver their products to customers through the Drizly app.

Related:

Read: Uber acquires on-demand alcohol marketplace Drizly

Read: Uber buys food delivery startup Postmates for $2.65 billion

Read: Delivery segment at Uber on track for breakeven EBITDA by year-end: CEO

Uber paid $1.1 billion in cash and stock for Drizly.

In July 2020, the ride-hailing giant agreed to acquire on-demand food delivery company Postmates in a deal estimated to be worth $2.65 billion.

Uber's delivery segment posted record gross bookings in Q1 2021, and the company reported it would be profitable by the end of the year. The delivery business reported gross bookings of $12.5 billion for the quarter — 24% higher sequentially than the fourth quarter of 2020 and up 166% year-on-year over the first quarter of 2020. The delivery business had a $52 billion annualized run rate in gross bookings in April.

Click for more FreightWaves articles by Brian Straight.

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