Billionaires who rode online delivery boom watch fortunes vanish

From San Francisco to Istanbul, founders of online-delivery companies that exploded during the pandemic are watching their fortunes disappear.

The boom minted six known billionaires, four of whom have already lost that status, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The group, which includes the founders of Turkey’s Getir, Amsterdam’s Just Eat Takeaway.com NV and Silicon Valley’s Instacart and DoorDash Inc., has lost more than $15 billion in total.

Investors piled money into food and grocery delivery companies during the pandemic when consumers were stuck at home. Now that the world has opened up again and demand has softened, once-generous valuations for the cash-guzzling businesses have been slashed as the companies acknowledge the challenges ahead.