Toast and Instacart agree partnership involving restaurants and retailers across US

Toast and Instacart have announced a partnership in the United States. The tie up aims to enable retailers to easily onboard and sync their bricks and mortar inventory to the Instacart Marketplace, and provide restaurants a "just in time" solution for essential supplies.

“Whether helping a local grocery shop reach new customers online or enabling a restaurant to ensure the kitchen never runs out of key ingredients during a Friday night rush, this partnership with Instacart aims to help our customers never miss a beat as they run - and grow - their businesses,” says Steve Fredette, Co-Founder and President at Toast.

“We’re enabling our retail and restaurant customers to tap into North America’s largest grocery delivery marketplaces - right from the Toast platform - giving our customers a powerful way to help grow their revenue streams and manage their businesses more efficiently.”

“This partnership brings together two platforms that play complementary roles in how retailers and restaurants operate and grow,” says Ryan Hamburger, Vice President of Commercial Partnerships at Instacart.

“We’re looking forward to expanding our breadth of retailers by welcoming Toast’s retail partners to the Instacart Marketplace and giving Toast restaurants access to our marketplace via Instacart Business for a fast and flexible way to source produce and other essentials to meet last minute needs.”

The pair plan to pilot these initiatives during early 2026, with a full roll-out to all US customers expected later this year.

2026 RTIH Innovation Awards

Grocery delivery will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards will open for entries in April. They celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Thursday, 15th October.

Check out our 2025 winners here.

Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”

“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”

He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”

Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.