Instacart bags $265m in new funding for online grocery delivery service

Online grocery delivery company Instacart has raised $265 million in a new financing round to more than double its valuation to $39 billion.

The new funding round was led Andreessen Horowitz, D1 Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research, and T. Rowe Price Associates, and other existing investors.

Instacart’s prior funding round came in October 2020 in which it raised $200 million at a valuation of $17.7 billion. That funding round was led by existing investors – Valiant Peregrine Fund and D1 Capital Partners.

Nick Giovanni – Chief Financial Officer for Instacart said: “This past year ushered in a new normal, changing the way people shop for groceries and goods. While grocery is the world’s largest retail category with annual spend of $1.3 trillion in North America alone, it’s still in the early stages of its digital transformation.

“As online grocery penetration increases over the coming years, we’ll continue to invest in our people, products and partners to support all of the communities we serve.”

Instacart bags $265m in new funding for online grocery delivery service. Photo courtesy of Instacart/Medium.

Instacart will use a part of the proceeds from the funding round for growing its corporate headcount by 50% this year.

The online grocery delivery company will also further invest in several major areas. These include the Instacart Marketplace, which links customers and retailers, Instacart Advertising, which helps consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies of all sizes to reach online shopping customers, and Instacart Enterprise, which provides end-to-end ecommerce solutions for retailers.

Jeff Jordan – Managing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz said: “The Instacart team unlocked one of the most operationally complex industries and brought it online to the benefit of the entire grocery ecosystem. As a long time investor, we’ve been incredibly impressed by the team’s resilience and how they met the moment of 2020.

“We believe this is just the beginning for online grocery and Instacart is well-positioned to continue to lead in this emerging space.”

Currently, Instacart partners with close to 600 national, regional, and local retailers to provide delivery and pickup services from 45,000 plus stores in the US and Canada.