Uber agrees to buy ezCater for $2.3 billion in cash

Uber agreed on Tuesday to pay $2.3 billion in cash for ezCater, a U.S. platform for office and event meals. Uber said the purchase would add that business to Uber Eats and to Uber for Business, the accounts it runs for companies.

"Catering is a big business, and can be a huge revenue stream for restaurants," said Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber's chief executive.

ezCater, a Boston company founded in 2007, takes orders for meetings, events and office meals. Uber said the average order is over $400, and that orders over the past year were more than $2.5 billion in gross bookings, the value of the orders rather than the money ezCater keeps. A full year of those bookings is about a tenth of the $27.5 billion in delivery gross bookings Uber reported for the quarter ended June 30.

DoorDash chose to build. On April 30 it said it was launching catering for workplace meetings and events. Its catering page says the product is available in New York City and San Francisco, and that outside those cities customers can place a group order.

ezCater already works with more than 140,000 restaurants nationwide. Nihad Rahman, its chief executive, called ezCater the leading platform for workplace catering.

Uber is paying about 44% more than the $1.6 billion value ezCater announced after a funding round in December 2021. Uber said bookings are growing in the high teens from a year earlier, a yearly gain near the top of the teens.

The companies expect to close in the coming months, after approval from regulators they did not name.