talabat
Sector: Technology / Online Food Delivery and Quick Commerce Country: Kuwait
15 October, 2026
The household name has grown from a Kuwait-based food-ordering website into one of the Middle East and North Africa’s largest on-demand consumer platforms, spanning restaurant delivery, groceries, retail, subscriptions and advertising.
Founded in Kuwait in 2004 and now headquartered in Dubai, talabat operates across the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. It completed its initial public offering on the Dubai Financial Market in December 2024 and remains part of Delivery Hero. Toon Gyssels, who previously served as talabat’s chief operating officer and interim chief executive, returned as CEO in November 2025.
The business entered 2026 with considerable scale. In 2025, gross merchandise value reached $9.4bn and management revenue was $3.9bn. talabat-only net income reached $464m, while the company continued to generate substantial cash flow and returned capital to shareholders through dividends. Momentum carried into the first half of 2026. talabat reported H1 GMV of about $5.6bn, up 15 per cent at constant currency, while revenue increased 19 per cent to $2.19bn. Adjusted EBITDA reached $277m and net income stood at $186m, with adjusted free cash flow of $266m. The comparative figures were presented on a pro-forma basis to incorporate Instashop for like-for-like comparison.
In the second quarter alone, GMV reached approximately $2.92bn and revenue rose to $1.14bn.
Adjusted EBITDA was $147m and net income was $100m. Active partners increased to around 97,000, while the active rider network expanded to approximately 189,000. Talabat’s investor-relations site confirms Q2 2026 as its latest reported results period.
The company is also investing to broaden its role beyond restaurant delivery. A $120m 2026 investment programme is supporting talabat mart, the talabat pro subscription programme and adjacent retail and consumer services. That multi-category strategy is increasingly visible in customer behaviour, with 75 per cent of H1 2026 GMV generated by customers ordering across more than one category.
talabat’s next phase is therefore less about being a specialist food-delivery application and more about becoming an everyday digital platform.
