US-based grocery delivery service Instacart has chosen Goldman Sachs to lead the underwriters in an initial public offering that would secure exits for corporates Comcast, American Express and Amazon, Reuters reported yesterday.
The offering is expected to take place in early 2021 and increase the $17.7bn valuation the company secured last month to $30bn, according to people familiar with the matter.
Instacart’s online platform allows users to order items from several local shops for delivery to their homes. Its user numbers have skyrocketed during coronavirus-related social distancing in recent months.
The company had raised $2.4bn as of last month when private equity fund Valiant Peregrine Fund and investment firm D1 Capital Partners co-led a $200m round that came after it closed a $325m round in July this year at a $13.8bn valuation.
T.Rowe Price, DST Global, General Catalyst and D1 Capital Partners supplied the funding and it came after Instacart closed an $871m series F round in late 2018 featuring D1 Capital, Tiger Global Management, Coatue Management and Valiant Capital, valuing it at $7bn.
Whole Foods, the grocery chain since acquired by e-commerce firm Amazon, had invested $36m in Instacart in 2016 while mass media group Comcast’s investment arm, Comcast Ventures, contributed to a $220m series C round the previous year at a $2bn valuation.
The company had raised $44m from investors including American Express Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of payment services firm American Express, in a series B round the year before valuing it at $400m.
Instacart’s other investors include Kleiner Perkins, Dragoneer Investment Group, Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Initialized Capital, FundersClub, Wellcome Trust, Y Combinator, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Aaron Levie and Sam Altman.
Photo courtesy of Instacart.
