By Waylon Cunningham
June 30 – Diners in Dallas and other Texas cities will soon be able to order food deliveries by drone directly to their doorstep from dozens of restaurant brands, foodhall company Wonder announced on Tuesday.
Wonder, the parent company of Grubhub that also operates around 130 foodhalls around the country, said drone deliveries will go live in January at most of a handful of locations it plans to open in Dallas, although more foodhalls with drone delivery capabilities will be opened around other major Texas cities throughout 2027.
Wonder’s push into the drone space adds to intensifying competition in the low-altitude economy for cheaper, faster and fresher food deliveries. Food delivery rivals DoorDash and Uber Eats are also aggressively pursuing drone and robotic food delivery partnerships.
“We know the faster we can deliver, the higher quality the food,” Wonder North American CEO Tony Hoggett told Reuters.
Wonder’s drone flights in Texas will be operated by San Francisco-based startup Zipline, which has partnerships across the healthcare, food and retail sectors. Wonder has already been testing drone deliveries in the U.S. Northeast.
The company, which is preparing for an IPO as soon as 2027, operates foodhalls that are in some ways similar to pandemic-era “ghost kitchens” in that they prepare food from dozens of restaurant brands, though diners can eat inside the establishment as well as ordering delivery or take-out.
Wonder has expanded quickly through acquisitions. It paid $650 million for Grubhub in 2024 — 91% less than the price tag the brand fetched just four years earlier. In 2025, it bought a kitchen robotics company called Spyce from Sweetgreen for $186 million. In 2023, it bought meal-kit company Blue Apron for $103 million.
(Reporting by Waylon Cunningham; editing by Edward Tobin)
