A brief history of Instacart, from startup to planned IPO

Instacart has grown from a small Silicon Valley tech startup to one of the most recognizable companies in the country over a little more than a decade.  

The same-day delivery platform has wooed investors through several rounds of venture capital financing, expanding throughout the U.S. and Canada while developing partnerships with thousands of retailers and creating an army of gig workers to shop for and deliver orders.  

Instacart’s expansion goes further to include the purchase of multiple tech companies, as the last-mile delivery service scaled up to capture new revenue sources such as advertising relationships with consumer-packaged goods brands.  

The company planned to go public in 2022, but a softening economy and rising inflation stalled Instacart’s first effort at an IPO.  

On Friday, Instacart made good on its IPO plans, filing paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol CART. Below is a brief history of the company since its inception in 2012.