Funding round delivers Instacart $225 million
Instacart continues surging right along with the growth of e-commerce as a whole, the latest proof being an injection of $225 million in funding from investors. The company’s overall valuation increases to $13.7 billion.
The online grocery deliverer is based in San Francisco and partners with more than 400 retailers across the U.S. and Canada, including Aldi, Cotsco, Kroger, Wegmans and many more big hitters. Ther service just added Big Lots this week and before that C&S Wholesale.
The latest millions earned came in a funding round led by DST Global and General Catalyst, with existing investor D1 Capital Partners participating.
The changes in shopping behaviors due to COVID-19, which have led to a boom in grocery delivery, are not lost on Instacart, which has seen orders increase by as much as 500% during the period, versus a year ago. “Overnight, Instacart became an essential service for millions of families across North America and our teams have worked incredibly hard to safely serve customers and shoppers during this time of need,” said Apoorva Mehta, Instacart founder and CEO.
“We have ambitious plans for the future and this new investment enables us to deepen our support for our shoppers and partners, further fund strategic initiatives such as our advertising and enterprise businesses, and continue to deliver exceptional experiences for customers,” he said. “This pandemic has fundamentally reshaped the way people think about grocery and e-commerce, and we're proud to have Instacart continue to play an important role in people's lives now and long after this crisis subsides."
Its sudden expansion over the course of 2020 has Instacart in more than 30,000 stores, making it accessible to more than 85% of households. It’s also made moves that puts it beyond grocery, delivering alcohol and prescription drugs like with Costco.
With its newfound capital, Instacart said it will look to continue to support its growing shopper community with new services and features; further investing in key businesses such as Instacart Advertising and Instacart Enterprise; and further scaling its operational and technical teams to help meet the increased customer demand for grocery delivery and pickup.