Ride-hailing giant Uber has paused most of its planned food delivery expansion across Europe, just months after unveiling an ambitious expansion plan, amid ongoing efforts to acquire German food delivery company Delivery Hero, reported Financial Times.
The report said Uber has shelved launch plans in five of the seven European markets it had originally targeted for 2026, including Austria, Norway and Greece. The other two countries were not identified.
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Earlier this year, the San Francisco-based company had announced plans to expand Uber Eats into Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, the Czech Republic, Greece and Romania, with the initiative expected to generate an additional $1 billion in gross bookings over the next three years.
Despite slowing its expansion, Uber remains focused on acquiring Delivery Hero. In May, Delivery Hero disclosed that it had received a takeover proposal from Uber valued at €33 per share.
Reuters had also reported that Uber increased its stake in the German company to nearly 37% from 25% after purchasing additional shares from investor Aspex Management.
According to FT, Uber said the decision to pause further expansion followed the strong performance of its launches in Finland and Denmark.
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The company said it now intends to concentrate on building momentum in markets where Uber Eats has already been introduced rather than entering new countries immediately.
Reuters, though, could not independently verify the FT report, and reported that neither Uber nor Delivery Hero responded to requests for comment outside the company's remarks to the newspaper.
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