Instacart, the US-based grocery delivery service that counts e-commerce group Amazon, mass media group Comcast and payment services firm American Express as investors, secured $265m yesterday at a $39bn post-money valuation.
The round was co-led by investment and financial services group Fidelity Management and Research and fellow returning investors Andreessen Horowitz, D1 Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital and T Rowe Price.
Founded in 2012, Instacart operates an online platform where users in the US and Canada can buy groceries and goods from local stores that are delivered to their homes. It works with some 500 retailers and sources items from almost 40,000 stores across 5,500 North American cities and towns.
The funding will be used to grow headcount by about 50% and enhance services including Instacart Marketplace, which helps customers connect with retailers; Instacart Advertising, a marketing tool for consumer packaged goods companies; and Instacart Enterprise, a retailer-focused e-commerce platform.
The company is considering going public this year, people privy to the matter told Reuters in November 2020. It raised $200m at a $17.7bn post-money valuation in an October 2020 round co-led by D1 Capital Partners and Valiant Peregrine Fund to take its total funding to $2.4bn.
Whole Foods, the supermarket chain later acquired by Amazon, provided $36m for the company in 2016, valuing it at $2bn. Comcast’s corporate venturing arm, Comcast Ventures, had taken part in its $220m series C round the year before.
American Express Ventures, the investment vehicle for payment services firm American Express, had backed Instacart’s $44m series B round in 2014.
Instacart’s investors also include Canaan Partners, Coatue Management, Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, FundersClub, General Catalyst, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Initialized Capital, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, SV Angel, Thrive Capital, Tiger Global Management, Wellcome Trust, Y Combinator, Sam Altman, Paul Buchheit and Aaron Levie.
Image courtesy of Instacart.
