Instacart valued at $39bn after mega funding round
US grocery delivery venture Instacart has raised $265 million from its existing investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and D1 Capital Partners.
This values the company at $39 billion, up from $17.8 billion at the time of its previous fundraise, which closed in November last year.
Instacart, which is laying the groundwork for an initial public offering, will use the cash to increase its corporate headcount by about 50% this year.
It will also invest further in several key areas such as the Instacart Marketplace, which connects customers and retailers.
Nick Giovanni, Chief Financial Officer at Instacart, says: "This past year ushered in a new normal, changing the way people shop for groceries and goods.”
“While grocery is the world's largest retail category with annual spend of $1.3 trillion in North America alone, it's still in the early stages of its digital transformation.”
He concludes: “As online grocery penetration increases over the coming years, we'll continue to invest in our people, products and partners to support all of the communities we serve.”
Micro-fulfilment centres
Instacart is also looking into the use of robotic warehouses to fulfil its orders.
It currently uses more than 500,000 gig workers for this.
According to a FT article, citing several people familiar with discussions, Instacart has initially expressed a desire to open as many as 50 micro-fulfilment centres across the US in about a year.
It told the FT: “While we have no updates to share today, we’re constantly evaluating our services in deep partnership with the nearly 600 retailers we work with.”
“Our entire product and model is predicated on being a chief ally to our retail partners.”
“We’re committed to supporting our bricks and mortar partners and continuing to invest in and explore new tools and technologies that support the needs of their customers and further enable their businesses to grow and scale over the long-term.”
