Grocery delivery company Instacart said Wednesday that it would test water bodies for public offerings, despite the recent instability of tech stocks over the past year and the company’s own turmoil.
The company said it had submitted so-called confidential filing documents. This means that you do not yet need to disclose specific data about your company. Filing does not require Instacart to go public, but it is seen as a major step towards one.
If Instacart is published, Will do so at dangerous times.. Wall Street, plagued by inflation and the war in Ukraine, has been calm on tech stocks in recent months, with IPO numbers down 80% year-on-year as of May 4, according to Renaissance Capital.
Instacart, which matches customers at home with shoppers who pick up and deliver groceries in stores, has addressed its own problems. March, The company has significantly reduced its reputation From $ 40 billion to $ 24 billion, a rare move for private start-ups. Some employees complained that the change was equivalent to a reduction.
With the increase in Covid cases in 2020, the company saw a surge in sales and revenue. However, the acceleration slowed in the second quarter of 2021 as more people were vaccinated and returned to their normal shopping habits.
since then, The company has been looking for a direction.. They tried to become more technology providers for their long-standing grocery partners, but they responded to the ambivalence of new products.
Apoorva Mehta, founder and chief executive officer of Instacart, replaced a former Facebook executive, who chaired the board of directors. Other top executives, including the two presidents, have also left.
According to four people who know the situation, Mehta had tense discussions with board members, including talks with DoorDash and Uber, about the potential acquisition of Instacart last year. (The New York Times CEO Meredith Copit Levien joined Instacart’s board of directors in October 2021.)
Instacart was founded in 2012 by Mehta, and Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo. Its major investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and D1 Capital Partners.
The move to open the company will be the next step in Instacart’s new vision presented by CEO Fidji Simo, who took steps for Mehta last summer. According to people familiar with the situation, Instacart is working with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to provide it.
In a blog posted Wednesday to commemorate Instacart’s 10th anniversary, Simo didn’t directly mention the company’s release, but Instacart said it was building technology for the next decade of the grocery business. Stated.
“In the process, we need to navigate new challenges and volatile public markets,” she writes. “But we have a vision worth pursuing.”
