Is Uber Eats Eying A Delivery Hero Acquisition?
Amazon Now brings 30 minute deliveries to U.S., Instacart + Ace Hardware, Talabat grows despite war in Q1
There’s always big news coming out of the Gulf, as Talabat posts strong Q1 results despite drones flying overhead. That growth, in fact, may be why Uber is upping its stake in Delivery Hero — Talabat’s majority owner — as DH looks for new leadership in the wake of its CEO’s ouster. Meanwhile, Amazon is expanding 30 minute deliveries and Instacart is tooling up a new partnership with Ace Hardware.
Today’s edition is brought to you by Gridwise Analytics.
Today:
Amazon Now Launches 30 Minute Deliveries
Instacart Adds Ace Hardware Amid Fulfillment Pro Push
Chart Time | Salam! Talabat Sees Peaceful Quarterly Growth
Uber + Delivery Hero Could Rule the Middle East
Q-COMMERCE | Amazon Now Brings 30-Min Deliveries to U.S.
Amazon is giving fast deliveries another go, as it launches Amazon Now in Atlanta, Dallas–Fort Worth, Philadelphia and Seattle, with service in Austin, Houston, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix, Denver and Oklahoma City coming soon. Priced at $3.99 per order on baskets of $15+ for Prime members, the service promises deliveries in half an hour or less: a realtime delivery clock on top of the site shows customers just how fast that order could come. SKUs include fresh groceries, electronics, household goods and cleaning items.
The Big Picture: Amazon continues to test new delivery speeds, having just debuted one hour deliveries in a number of other U.S. markets. The company’s been testing 30-minute deliveries in Philly and Seattle since December. The retail giant also continues to iterate on its vehicular fleet, as it brings pedal-powered cargo equads to D.C. and Prime Air drones to the U.K.
PARTNER | Rising Fuel Costs Are Squeezing Gig Driver Earnings
Rideshare and delivery drivers are now spending 32–39% more of their gross pay on fuel than a year ago — the highest share since 2022. Platform relief programs are covering only a fraction of the gap, leaving drivers to absorb the shock through lower take-home pay.
Rideshare drivers’ fuel share of pay rose 32% to 17.4% in Q1 2026 — the highest level since 2022
Delivery drivers saw an even sharper 39% increase, with fuel claiming 15.6% of gross earnings over the same period
Only 17.4% of Uber Eats workers received any gas-related payout the week of March 30; DoorDash’s maximum $15 weekly payout offsets only a fraction of the estimated $20–$30 in incremental weekly fuel costs for a full-time driver
Get the full data — including platform-by-platform breakdowns and what this means for driver supply — in Gridwise’s latest report.
RETAILERS | Instacart Adds Ace, Upgrades Fulfillment Pro
Instacart continues to beef up its non-grocery game, as it onboards Ace Hardware as a new retail partner. Ace is the world’s largest hardware cooperative, consisting of 8,800 locally owned and operated stores across the globe, with 5,200+ in the United States. As a co-op, each Ace location chooses its own inventory, which makes this a particularly interesting challenge for the 3PD model. To put it to a test, I added a few items to a cart that I suspected my local Ace — a half mile away — didn’t stock. Lo and behold: the estimated delivery time jumped up by an hour, and a $10 “long-distance fee” was added to the order. Caveat emptor!
The Big Picture: Instacart may be making a push into new verticals, but Ace is just as promiscuous in its recent partnership spree. Back in September 2025, the retailer announced an “exclusive nationwide partnership” with DoorDash, covering 4,000+ locations. Evidently that exclusivity didn’t last long, as Ace then partnered with Uber Eats this past April. Expect Instacart to have a bunch more retailer partnerships up its sleeve, as it’s launching a number of upgrades to its Fulfillment Pro picking and delivery tools, including improved route visibility for dispatchers, exception management, GPS tracking and live translation.
CHART TIME | Talabat’s Peaceful Q1 Growth
Middle Eastern delivery player Talabat released its Q1 2026 results, showing GMV up 18% YoY, while revenue climbed 23% to $1 billion and net income fell 18% as the company poured cash into its “Everyday App” investments. While the Gulf was pushed into war during Q1, Talabat saw little impact to its business, with item and rider availability recovering quickly. Perhaps consumers, fearful of heading outdoors during a conflict, instead shifted that danger to couriers? Hope they tipped well!
M&A | With Östberg Out, Will Uber Take Over Delivery Hero?
Its been a rocky few months for Delivery Hero, but the international 3PD’s path forward seems to be emerging. Co-Founder and CEO Niklas Östberg is stepping down fifteen years after launch, handing over the keys by next March. While the company’s Supervisory Board is hunting for a new CEO, he or she could be leading a very different company, as Uber just upped its ownership stake to 19.5% of issued capital, with options for a further 5.6% of the company. While that’s just below the 30% stake that would require a mandatory purchase offer to all remaining shareholders, Uber appears to be leaving the door open to a future, full-scale takeover.
The Big Picture: Delivery Hero has been under tremendous investor pressure as of late, with the perpetually unprofitable 3PD being pushed to cut costs and exit markets. For many years, the company had stable backing from Prosus, but that conglomerate has been slowly selling down its stake, opting to instead back Just Eat Takeaway.com. Alongside Uber, the hedge fund Aspex has also been buying up shares, with the Hong Kong-based financial firm now holding at least 15% of Delivery Hero. To satisfy Aspex, Delivery Hero is also looking to offload Woowa Brothers, its South Korean subsidiary, for around $5.37 billion, which would be a mild profit on the $4 billion it paid for the company in 2019. Subtracting its Asia operations, the Middle East would represent about 1/3 of Delivery Hero’s GMV: that fast-growing region would keenly complement Uber’s recent acquisition of Turkey’s Getir.
A Few Good Links
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