Uber agrees to buy ezCater for $2.3B: What restaurants know so far

Based on Uber's and ezCater's announcement, ezCater's restaurant help center and Uber's published mission statements.

Uber agreed on Oct. 6 to buy ezCater, a catering marketplace for workplaces, in an all-cash deal valued at $2.3 billion, the companies announced. ezCater says businesses can order from more than 140,000 restaurants through it. The deal has not closed.

Do I need to do anything?

Not yet. The companies say the deal is "expected to close in the coming months, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions" (announcement). The announcement doesn't mention any change to ezCater's fees, terms or delivery for restaurants. If you get catering orders through ezCater, the questions below are worth asking your rep now.

What to ask your ezCater rep

1. Will my commission or payment fee change after the deal closes, and how much notice will I get?
2. Will my menu or orders show up on Uber Eats, and can I say no?
3. Will I keep access to my customer list, including for Marketplace orders?
4. Will Dispatch deliveries move to Uber couriers, and will Dispatch pricing change?

What ezCater charges restaurants today

As of Oct. 18, 2026, ezCater's fees page lists no signup or monthly fees. Restaurants pay 15% commission on Marketplace orders and 7% on orders from their own website through ezCater's Online Ordering. Commission applies to the meal subtotal plus the delivery fee, not tips or tax. A 2.99% payment fee applies to the subtotal, delivery fee and tax.

On a $400 Marketplace order with no delivery fee or tax, that's $60 in commission plus $11.96 in payment fees, or about 18% of the order (our calculation from those rates). Optional ad programs cost more.

ezCater also requires restaurants to follow an "equal price guarantee" (signup requirements): prices on ezCater can't be higher than ordering from the restaurant directly. That means a restaurant can't cover those fees by charging more on ezCater than on its own menu.

ezCater's own delivery service, Dispatch, costs $30 on orders up to $300 and 10% of the subtotal above that, according to the same fees page.

Who owns the customer relationship

For Online Ordering, ezCater says those customers "are your customers, meaning we share these customer's information with you," and restaurants can export a customer list (ezCater). The help pages we read don't say the same for Marketplace orders. The announcement doesn't say what happens to customer data after the deal closes.

What was announced

Uber says ezCater generated more than $2.5 billion in gross bookings (the total value of orders) over the past 12 months, "growing high teens year-over-year." It says ezCater's average order is over $400, and the business is profitable on a non-GAAP operating income basis, a measure that leaves out some costs (announcement). Those are the companies' own figures.

The announcement says, "Restaurants will be able to grow through larger orders and new diners." Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber's reach can "help restaurants win more of these valuable orders." It also says "couriers on Uber Eats will have attractive new opportunities to earn," but it doesn't say whether they will deliver ezCater orders.

Does the deal match each company's stated mission?

Uber words its mission differently in different places. The deal announcement says, "Uber's mission is to create opportunity through movement" (announcement). Its About page, checked Oct. 8, 2026, is headed, "We reimagine the way the world moves for the better." Its 2024 annual report puts that line under "Uber's Mission" and adds a "mission to help people go anywhere and get anything and earn their way."

None of these lines mentions restaurants. The announcement's description of Uber does mention food: Uber is "changing how people, food, and things move through cities." Uber's case for restaurants is made in the deal announcement itself, not in its mission lines.

ezCater doesn't publish a mission statement that we could find. Its About page calls it "the workplace food platform," "helping organizations meet all their food needs, while helping restaurants grow their business." Restaurants are named in that line. The announcement doesn't say whether that positioning continues under Uber.

We apply the same test to Ser.vi. Ser.vi's mission is to "help restaurants and service providers make service experiences great," CEO Sal Iozzia said. Like ezCater's positioning line, it names restaurants. Ser.vi's pricing page, checked Oct. 18, 2026, says restaurants pay 0% commission on online orders, and the guest pays a 5% fee at checkout. Its POS software is free, but the restaurant pays 3.0% plus 20 cents per POS order by default, and hardware costs extra, the same page says.

Bottom line: On the published evidence so far, the deal's case for restaurants rests on the announcement's promise of "larger orders and new diners," not on any change to ezCater's fees, terms or customer-data rules. Until the companies publish changes, restaurants on ezCater should plan around today's published costs: 15% commission plus a 2.99% payment fee on Marketplace orders.