Is Instacart finally getting an IPO?

Instacart may be ready to make an initial public offering, and it could happen as early as September, according to reporting from Bloomberg.

When it does file, Instacart will reveal new specifics regarding its finances and operations. The IPO document will also have a placeholder for the terms of the offering. 

Instacart filed to go public with the SEC confidentially last year, and at the time, according to Bloomberg, the company was working with banks like Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and JP Morgan Chase & Co. Instacart was also working on ways to consolidate and expand its share of the grocery delivery market space.

However, a volatile market in late 2022 delayed Instacart’s IPO, and the company cut its internal valuation to $13 billion. It was the second time Instacart reduced its valuation in 2022, as the first time it was dropped to $24 billion. In 2021, Instacart was valued at $39 billion.

Instead Instacart has been using the extra time to build up some noticeable momentum. The COVID-19 pandemic launched Instacart’s business, but with consumers returning to stores over the last year a pivot has been observed.

New revenue streams have been sought out, including a digital media platform. Advertising services on Instacart have created more than 15% sales bump for brands on the platform, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

More stores also were added to the Instacart platform and Instacart membership experienced an increase. On Feb. 28, the grocery delivery and pick-up service announced Instacart Business, which caters to business owners, particularly at the small and local level.

Instacart COO Asha Sharma was part of the development of Instacart Business, and she sees it as one that could compete with the likes of Amazon and Walmart, and in the food and supplies marketplace it could one day be the gold standard.

“When I think about small businesses in my neighborhood, I think about the establishments I eat at and shop at, but I also think about the people behind them and I think about their families, and I think that our products play a unique role in both of their lives,” Sharma told Supermarket News.

“I want [Instacart] to be the largest food and supplies marketplace for consumers and small businesses.”

Instacart actually has been serving small businesses with things like office supplies, cleaning products and snacks for quite some time. Many of them started using Instacart as a consumer, and after experiencing the benefits have continued using the service to serve their business needs. This trend has been growing for over a year now, and in a matter of months Sharma and her colleagues were able to develop Instacart Business.

“The traction we have seen has been growing significantly now to the amount of millions of orders per quarter so at the end of last year we said that we wanted to make a more concrete investment and provide business-friendly retailer partnerships that would better serve and reach these businesses as well as new technology.

It has not been a banner year for IPOs in the U.S. Almost nine months into 2023, only $14 billion has been raised in IPOs on U.S. exchanges. Last year at this time $241 billion was raised in what would become a record-setting year for IPOs, according to Bloomberg.

Supermarket News reached out to Instacart and asked them about the plans for the IPO filing, but the company had no comment. 

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Instacart might be ready to announce its IPO filing in a matter of weeks. Late last year, the grocery-delivery company said the market was not right for the filing...that it was too risky. Do you think the market has improved that much over the last 10 months?  

Have another thought? Leave a comment below,  or email the SN staff at [email protected], and make sure to include your first and last name and job title.