Uber announced today that it will be acquiring Drizly for $1.1 billion. Its alcohol marketplace will be integrated with the Uber Eats app while Drizly maintains a separate app.
Business has boomed for Drizly since the start of the pandemic. The company has said lockdowns drove up sales by 400% in May.
"Wherever you want to go and whatever you need to get, our goal at Uber is to make people's lives a little bit easier," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a release. "That's why we've been branching into new categories like groceries, prescriptions and, now, alcohol."
Drizly's success to date had been an example of a new, upstart company that has succeeded in a digital marketplace dominated by a few large players, including Uber. The ride-hailing company also bought Postmates late last year for $2.65 billion as its main business has struggled during the pandemic.