The fintech is expanding its efforts to market local restaurants using its point-of-sale system across Cash App’s user base.

Block debuted the Neighborhoods program in October 2025 as a way to create a local network between its 59 million Cash App monthly users and about 4.5 million merchants that use Square. Customers pay for their orders through Cash App.

The Neighborhoods initiative represents a lower-cost loyalty program for many merchants, as Block offers Square sellers a 1% processing fee for orders from Cash App users, half of Square’s usual fee.

The program is a lower-cost sales channel and alternative to food-order behemoths like DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats, part of Uber Technologies, Mizuho Securities analyst Dan Dolev said in an interview last month. It also gives local merchants a loyalty program with customers through the order discount and other promotions delivered via Cash App.

“We’re seeing the (Neighborhoods) numbers starting to inflect in a meaningful way,” Owen Jennings, Block’s head of business, said of the program on Block’s Aug. 5 quarterly earnings call. “We have a huge opportunity to drive deeper engagement and deeper monetization,” he said.

Block will “lean into investments to scale this differentiated network faster” in the latter half of 2026, Amrita Ahuja, Block’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer, said on the call. Ahuja did not specify how much Block would invest in its Neighborhoods expansion, and a spokesperson for the company did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment.

Food and beverage sellers represent the largest industry vertical by payment volume for Square, at about 35%, according to the company’s 2025 annual report .

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