Uber Quietly Drops Most of Its European Food Delivery Expansion to Chase a Massive Takeover
Finn's Take· TL;DR- Uber shelved expansion into five of seven targeted European markets to pursue €10 billion takeover of Delivery Hero instead of organic growth.
- Acquisition would instantly give Uber established presence across 65 countries rather than building market-by-market, despite potential regulatory delays into 2027.
- DoorDash also interested in Delivery Hero, intensifying competition as Uber has already accumulated 36.83% stake in the German platform.
A Bold Pivot Away from Organic Growth
Uber has quietly shelved the majority of its headline-grabbing European food delivery expansion, just months after announcing it with considerable fanfare. The reversal is striking in its speed — and its scale. Rather than building market by market across the continent, Uber is now betting that buying its way in is the smarter play.
Earlier in the year, Uber said it planned to expand its food delivery business into seven new European markets — Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Romania. The company expected the move to generate an additional $1 billion in gross bookings over the next three years. That vision has now been dramatically scaled back.
Five Markets Dropped, Two Kept
The Financial Times reported that Uber no longer plans to launch Uber Eats in five of the seven European countries it had targeted for 2026, including Austria, Norway, and Greece, with the other two countries not identified in the report. After successful rollouts in Finland and Denmark, Uber halted several planned launches to concentrate on existing markets and ongoing talks over Delivery Hero.
Uber told the FT that following the success of its launches in Finland and Denmark, it had decided to focus on sustaining momentum in those existing markets rather than pushing into new ones. That explanation, while reasonable on its face, only tells part of the story. The bigger picture is a multibillion-dollar acquisition pursuit that is reshaping the company's entire European strategy.
The Delivery Hero Gamble
Uber has offered to take over Delivery Hero SE in a deal that would value the German delivery company at about €10 billion ($11.6 billion), as it seeks to ramp up competition with DoorDash outside the US. Delivery Hero received an approach from Uber for €33 per share and "remains fully focused on executing its strategic review process." Sources told the FT that Uber rival DoorDash has also expressed interest in acquiring Delivery Hero's Middle Eastern unit, and has explored a full takeover as well.
In April, Prosus sold Uber a 4.5% stake in Delivery Hero for about €270 million, making Uber the fourth-largest shareholder in the Berlin-based company. Prosus said the sale was part of commitments tied to the European Commission's approval of its acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway.com. Since then, Uber has continued accumulating shares. Uber Technologies has increased its stake in Delivery Hero to 36.83% by buying Aspex Management's share of the German food delivery platform.
Buy, Don't Build
The timing matters because Delivery Hero remains a major regional operator, with service in around 65 countries across Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. In its first-quarter 2026 update, Delivery Hero said quick-commerce gross merchandise value rose 30% from a year earlier and accounted for 18% of group GMV. That kind of entrenched scale is exactly what Uber would be acquiring — instantly, rather than earning it city by city.
The decision to pause organic expansion while spending heavily on Delivery Hero shares makes the bet explicit: Uber believes that acquiring an entrenched European delivery network beats building one from scratch, even if the regulatory timeline stretches well into 2027 and the final price climbs considerably from where it started. With DoorDash circling and antitrust regulators watching closely, the outcome of this deal could redraw the map of European food delivery for years to come.