Just Eat Takeaway.com NV of the Netherlands said on Wednesday it is selling its U.S. business Grubhub to New York-based Wonder Group in a deal valued at $650 million-a stark 91% less than the $7.3 billion Just Eat Takeaway paid for the company just four years ago.

The deal is to close in the first quarter of 2025, and Just Eat Takeaway would receive net proceeds of $50 million. Wonder, which started as a food delivery business in 2018 but has shifted its business to operate delivery-focused restaurants in New York and Philadelphia, will take on $500 million of Grubhub's debt.

The divestiture comes as food and grocery delivery increasingly is an unprofitable endeavor for businesses that bet the farm on this model during the COVID-19 pandemic and later, when people sheltering in place and social distancing opted to order in food and grocery items they would previously purchase in person.

The quick-commerce and food delivery sectors saw a massive intake of venture capital and other investments in the following years; among them were entities such as Getir and Flink, which raised hundreds of millions and invested millions in marketing and acquisitions.

That worked as long as the pandemic there was enough to keep the world turned upside down and pre-pandemic tailwinds persisted. Once the world returned to a semblance of normalcy and post-pandemic tailwinds trailed off, that instant delivery model proved unsustainable." Flink is said to be valued at just shy of $1 billion, down from near $3 billion, while Getir has retreated to shut its operations in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe to focus on its home market of Turkey.

Just Eat Takeaway itself has been attempting to offload Grubhub for years. The company first revealed it was seeking to sell Grubhub in April of last year to concentrate on profitability, less than one year after it confirmed the purchase of the firm, but last year, its CEO said a sale was proving "very difficult.".

"The sale of Grubhub to Wonder will increase the cash generation capabilities of Just Eat Takeaway.com and will accelerate our growth," Jitse Groen, Just Eat Takeaway's CEO said in a statement. The company said the sale would allow it to invest in countries where it had a competitive advantage and generate free cash flow.

According to Wonder's CEO, Marc Lore, the acquisition will help the company become a super app for food delivery.

"We are really looking forward to offering a handpicked selection of Grubhub's restaurant partners in the Wonder app, alongside our own restaurants and meal kits. This is another step on the path toward our vision of the super app for meal time, reimagining the future of food delivery.".

Wonder has raised over $1.7 billion according to Crunchbase and has some big name backers that include Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Google Ventures, Nestle, and Forerunner Ventures.