- Uber has agreed to buy ezCater for $2.3B in cash to push Uber Eats into workplace catering.
- ezCater’s orders average over $400, and it booked more than $2.5B in 12 months.
- The price is $700M above ezCater’s $1.6B valuation after its 2021 round.
Uber has agreed to buy ezCater, the Boston company that lets businesses order food from restaurants, for $2.3 billion in cash. The companies announced the deal on October 6, and Uber says it will combine ezCater’s catering platform with Uber Eats and Uber for Business. Uber expects to close the deal in the coming months, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
ezCater serves meetings, events, and recurring workplace meal programmes through more than 140,000 US restaurants. It generated more than $2.5 billion in gross bookings over the trailing 12 months, growing at a high-teens rate, with orders averaging over $400.
Uber says the business is profitable on a non-GAAP operating income basis and expects it to add to margins. The announcement does not include ezCater’s revenue, earnings, or synergy targets.
“Catering is a big business and can be a huge revenue stream for restaurants. Nihad and his incredible team have built an amazing platform. With Uber’s reach, we can bring that experience to millions more customers and help restaurants win more of these valuable orders,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber.
A $700M step up from the last private valuation
ezCater’s last disclosed valuation was $1.6 billion, set in December 2021 when it raised a $100 million Series D-2 led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Quadrille Capital, GIC, ICONIQ Growth, Insight Partners, and Invus also joined, taking total funding to $425 million.
The $1.6 billion was a post-money valuation from a funding round, while Uber’s release says only that the deal is “valued at $2.3 billion” and does not say whether that includes debt or cash. Against bookings, the price is under one times trailing gross bookings, though bookings count the full value of orders, not ezCater’s own revenue.
ezCater was co-founded in 2007 by Stefania Mallett and Briscoe Rodgers and bootstrapped until 2011, when it raised a $2.7 million Series A. Mallett stepped down as CEO in 2023. Her successor, Ashwin Raj, left in January 2025, and Rahman, CFO since 2022, was named permanent CEO that May.
The Boston Globe notes ezCater had planned to go public on its own only a few years ago.
Why catering, and why now
The appeal is order size. ezCater’s average order tops $400. Swish, the Indian quick-delivery startup, reported an average order of ₹200 to ₹250, or about $2 to $3, according to TechCrunch. At those sizes, one catering order can be worth more than 100 of Swish’s average meals.
Uber is also buying scale elsewhere. On July 16, it agreed to a voluntary takeover offer for Delivery Hero at €41.50 a share in cash, an implied equity value of $14.8 billion, according to its quarterly filing. SSW Partners will separately buy Delivery Hero’s operations in 14 markets for about $1.6 billion, and Uber expects the main deal to close in the second half of 2027.
Rivals are already in catering. DoorDash, Instacart, and Grubhub all offer it. Grubhub is owned by Wonder, which raised a $650 million Series D at a $9 billion pre-money valuation on July 16. Founder and CEO Marc Lore told Fortune the company will be ready to go public early next year.
The food delivery race heats up
The rest of foodtech is chasing the same restaurants from different angles. On the software side, Munich-based allO raised a $14 million Series A led by Zigg Capital in May 2026 to build an AI-run operating system covering payments, reservations, delivery integrations, and back-office work. In India, Swish raised a $38 million Series B led by Hara Global and Bain Capital Ventures in March 2026 to expand a model where it owns its kitchens and last-mile delivery.
Wonder owns kitchens and a delivery marketplace. allO owns the restaurant’s software. Swish owns the kitchen and the courier. Uber is now buying the corporate meal order.
What the announcement leaves open is how Uber will run ezCater. It does not say whether the ezCater name will stay, or how ezCater’s restaurant network will sit alongside Uber Eats’ own. The answer will decide whether $400 orders remain a separate business or become a feature of Uber Eats.
