Uber has agreed to acquire Drizly, an on-demand alcohol marketplace, for around $1.1bn in stock and cash. The acquisition is expected to close during the first half of 2021.

Drizly, which serves more than 1,400 cities across the majority of US states, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Uber and will eventually be integrated with the Uber Eats app, while continuing to maintain its own app.

“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. That’s why we’ve been branching into new categories like groceries, prescriptions and, now, alcohol,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO. “Cory [Rellas] and his amazing team have built Drizly into an incredible success story, profitably growing gross bookings more than 300 per cent year-over-year. By bringing Drizly into the Uber family, we can accelerate that trajectory by exposing Drizly to the Uber audience and expanding its geographic presence into our global footprint in the years ahead.”

Under Uber’s ownership, Drizly aims to innovate and expand independently, while benefitting from Uber’s mobile marketplace technologies.

“Drizly has spent the last eight years building the infrastructure, technology, and partnerships to bring the consumer a shopping experience they deserve,” said Cory Rellas, Co-founder and CEO of Drizly. “It’s a proud day for the Drizly team as we recognize what we’ve accomplished to date but also with the humility that much remains to be done to fulfil our vision. With this in mind, we are thrilled to join a world-class Uber team whose platform will accelerate Drizly on its mission to be there when it matters – committed to life’s moments and the people who create them.”