DoorDash (NASDAQ:DASH) executives focused their Q4 2025 earnings call on international momentum—particularly in Europe following the Deliveroo acquisition—along with continued investment in a unified global technology platform, expanding non-restaurant categories, and longer-term bets on autonomous delivery and AI-driven commerce.
Europe and Deliveroo integration
CEO Tony Xu said DoorDash feels “really great” about its position in Europe, calling the company a leading player in many countries and describing a “really great start” with Deliveroo. Xu said Deliveroo is “growing much faster at the same profit contribution that we expected before the acquisition,” and that the company is gaining share in Deliveroo’s largest markets. He added that DoorDash is also gaining share on the Wolt side.
2026 investment priorities and EBITDA expectations
CFO Ravi Inukonda said his expectations for full-year 2026 EBITDA have not changed since the prior call. He said DoorDash expects 2026 EBITDA margin to be “up slightly compared to 2025, excluding Deliveroo,” and reiterated that Deliveroo is expected to produce about $200 million of EBITDA for the year.
Inukonda outlined three major areas of investment discussed by the company:
- Global tech stack modernization: Inukonda said DoorDash is making “good progress,” but noted some spending is redundant while the company runs multiple platforms in parallel. He said the majority of that spend should be in 2026, with some extending into 2027, though he characterized the 2027 portion as smaller.
- Autonomy: DoorDash is expanding investment in autonomous delivery efforts, which management framed as critical to lowering delivery costs while maintaining quality over time.
- Merchant services: Inukonda said the company is expanding offerings here as well and will continue to invest if customer benefits continue to improve, tying the strategy to maximizing long-term free cash flow and becoming an “operating system for local commerce.”
Building an “operating system for local commerce”
Xu expanded on DoorDash’s broader strategy, describing what he believes physical businesses need to compete as omnichannel players: software, warehousing and physical infrastructure, and “the lowest cost of delivery at the highest quality.” He referenced product announcements from the company’s Dash Forward event in September 2025, positioning them as building blocks for that effort.
He said DoorDash is seeing continued growth across categories, and noted that about 30% of customers are ordering outside the restaurant category as the company broadens into grocery and retail. Xu said DoorDash has become “the leading third-party transaction platform in the U.S.” for grocery and retail, and is also growing quickly outside the U.S.
Xu also described DoorDash’s warehousing ambitions, citing the company’s DashMart Fulfillment Services announcement and partnerships “with companies like Kroger or CVS” aimed at improving inventory accuracy, speed, and cost to enable same-hour and same-day delivery.
New verticals: growth and improving unit economics
Inukonda said DoorDash’s retail and grocery business had a strong quarter and year, and called DoorDash the “fastest growing in the U.S.” relative to third-party peers. He reiterated the company’s long-term goal of moving the current mix—where 30% of U.S. customers order from non-restaurant categories—toward 100% over time.
On profitability, Inukonda said the team has made “really good progress” in unit economics year over year and expects the entire retail and grocery business to be unit economic positive in the second half of the year. He attributed improvement to continued execution across several factors rather than a single step-change, including scale, density, logistics efficiency, and increasing basket sizes.
Executives also said they are seeing consumers use DoorDash for both quick grocery runs and larger weekend “stock-up” baskets. Xu said the stock-up behavior is developing alongside the mid-week convenience use case, and management said these behaviors are appearing faster in newer cohorts while existing cohorts increase grocery spend and share of wallet.
Autonomous delivery, AI, and ads
On autonomy, Xu described DoorDash’s vision as a fleet that could include different vehicles “by land and by air,” with a mix of in-house development (including DoorDash Dot) and third-party partnerships. He said the most important element is orchestration—managing handoffs between autonomous vehicles and Dashers, and matching delivery types to the right mode. Xu said DoorDash already has “real live deliveries happening right now with AVs” in a couple of markets.
Xu also said autonomous delivery use cases should extend beyond dense urban centers, including suburbs, and noted that Dot was designed in part to serve suburban environments. He added that drone projects could reach beyond suburbs into rural regions where longer distances may be better served by air.
On AI and “agentic commerce,” Xu said DoorDash’s positioning rests on solving the “end-to-end job” for customers, including execution in the physical world when issues arise after checkout. He said he views AI assistants as potential channel partners, similar to past traffic sources like Facebook and Google, but emphasized that retention and frequency depend on reliable end-to-end delivery execution.
In advertising, Xu said DoorDash’s ads business grew “really, really fast” in 2025 and that Symbiosys is off to a strong start. He said DoorDash has doubled the number of Symbiosys advertisers and tripled advertiser spend, adding that Smart Campaigns—designed to help restaurants run ROI-positive campaigns—was among the company’s fastest-growing ad products. He noted that grocery and retail advertising is earlier in maturity, which management views as additional runway.
Across multiple topics, executives returned to a consistent theme: investments in technology, logistics, and merchant tools are intended to expand DoorDash’s scope beyond restaurant delivery and strengthen long-term free cash flow, even as some spending—particularly tech platform redundancy—persists into 2027.
About DoorDash (NASDAQ:DASH)
DoorDash, Inc operates a technology-driven logistics and food-delivery marketplace that connects consumers, merchants and independent delivery contractors. The company’s core service enables customers to order from local restaurants and retailers through its app and website while DoorDash handles last-mile fulfillment via its network of drivers, known as “Dashers.” Over time the platform has broadened beyond restaurant deliveries to include groceries, convenience items and retail deliveries, positioning DoorDash as a broader on-demand logistics provider for consumer goods.
In addition to its marketplace, DoorDash offers a suite of products and services for consumers and businesses.
