Grubhub facts for kids
Logo used since 2021
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Formerly
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GrubHub Seamless Inc. (2013–2014) |
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| Private | |
| Traded as | NYSE: GRUB (2014–2021) |
| Industry | Online food ordering |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Founders |
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| Headquarters |
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U.S.
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Area served
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United States |
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Key people
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| Services | Food delivery |
| Revenue |  US$1.82 billion (2020) |
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Operating income
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 −US$149 million (2020) |
| −US$156 million (2020) |
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| Total assets | US$2.39 billion (2020) |
| Total equity | US$1.42 billion (2020) |
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Number of employees
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2,841 (Feb 2021) |
| Parent | Wonder Group Inc. |
| Subsidiaries |
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Grubhub Inc. is an American company that helps people order and get food delivered from restaurants. It's an online and mobile platform based in Chicago, Illinois.
Grubhub started in 2004. For a few years, it was part of a Dutch company called Just Eat Takeaway. In 2024, Wonder Group Inc. bought Grubhub for $650 million.
Grubhub has faced some criticism for its business practices. This includes how it lists restaurants and how it works with its delivery drivers. In April 2014, Grubhub became a public company. Its shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
By 2019, Grubhub had nearly 20 million active users. It worked with 115,000 restaurants in 3,200 cities across all 50 US states.
Contents
How Grubhub Started
Grubhub was founded in Chicago in 2004 by Mike Evans and Matt Maloney. They wanted to create an easier way to order food than using paper menus. In 2006, Maloney and Evans won a business competition at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with their Grubhub plan.
The company received its first major funding in 2007. This money helped Grubhub grow and expand into new cities like San Francisco and New York. Over the next few years, Grubhub continued to get more investments. This allowed it to become a bigger company.
Growing Bigger with Acquisitions
Grubhub has grown by adding other companies to its family. These include Seamless, AllMenus, MenuPages, LevelUp, and Tapingo. Seamless is another online food ordering platform that works in the U.S. and London.
In 2011, Grubhub bought Dotmenu, which owned Allmenus and Campusfood. Seamless also acquired MenuPages that same year. Grubhub continued to buy other food delivery services. These included DiningIn and Restaurants on the Run in 2015.
In 2017, Grubhub acquired Eat24 from Yelp. Eat24 was a popular food ordering service. Grubhub later stopped using the Eat24 brand. The company also acquired parts of OrderUp in 2017 and 2018.
Grubhub bought LevelUp in 2018. LevelUp helped restaurants with customer engagement and payments. It also acquired Tapingo, a platform for ordering food on college campuses. In 2019, Grubhub took over the U.S. operations of SkipTheDishes.
During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, more people started ordering food delivery. Grubhub offered contact-free delivery to keep its drivers and customers safe. They also gave people the option to pick up their own food.
Grubhub and Seamless Join Forces
Seamless started in 1999. It was created by a lawyer named Jason Finger. Seamless first helped companies order food for their employees. In 2005, Seamless started offering a free ordering service for regular customers.
In 2011, Seamless became a private company again. It then acquired MenuPages. In 2012, Seamless launched an iPad app.
In May 2013, Grubhub and Seamless announced they would merge. This merger was completed in August 2013. The combined company became much larger.
Becoming a Public Company
Grubhub became a public company in April 2014. Its shares were sold for $26 each. As a standalone company, it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol "GRUB."
Delivery Services
In June 2014, Grubhub started offering its own delivery service. This was for restaurants that didn't have their own delivery drivers. By 2016, Grubhub was delivering in over 50 cities across the U.S. By July 2018, it had expanded to 28 more cities.
Grubhub has competitors in the UK like Deliveroo and UberEATS. In the U.S., its main competitors include Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates, and EatStreet.
In February 2020, Grubhub launched Grubhub+. This is a monthly subscription program. It offers free, unlimited food delivery from partner restaurants for a fee. In 2021, Grubhub partnered with Yandex. This added Yandex delivery robots to the Grubhub platform for deliveries at colleges.
Recent Changes
In June 2020, a company from the Netherlands called Just Eat Takeaway announced it would buy Grubhub. The deal was worth $7.3 billion. This acquisition created one of the largest online food delivery services outside of China. It also gave Just Eat Takeaway a strong presence in the U.S. market.
The sale was completed on June 15, 2021. After this, Grubhub's logo changed to include the Just Eat Takeaway house symbol.
In April 2022, Just Eat Takeaway considered selling Grubhub. This was after an investor suggested they focus more on European markets.
In July 2022, Amazon made a deal with Just Eat Takeaway. This deal offered Prime customers a free Grubhub+ membership for a year. Amazon also gained the option to buy a small part of Grubhub. In May 2024, Amazon announced that Grubhub+ would be a permanent part of Amazon Prime memberships.
As of 2024, Wonder Group Inc. bought Grubhub from Just Eat Takeaway for $650 million.
In Popular Culture
In 2020, Grubhub released a series of animated TV commercials. These commercials showed people ordering food using the app. In January 2021, one of these ads, called "Delivery Dance," became very popular online. Many people created funny parodies of it.
The commercial showed people dancing after ordering food from Grubhub. The song used was "Soy Yo" by the Colombian band Bomba Estereo. Some people found the commercial annoying. They compared it to a similar ad from the grocery store chain Kroger.
