Online groceries delivery service Instacart to build new tech hub in Canada

Retail industry news : Online groceries delivery service Instacart is all set to open a new tech hub called Instacart North in Toronto next year to significantly grow its presence in Canada.

Instacart, which currently has over 80 employees in its Toronto office, is planning to hire 200 new employees for the Instacart North tech hub in various fields such as engineering, product, design, and research and development domains, over the next several years.

The online groceries delivery service says that its presence in Canada has grown over the last year courtesy of new and deepening retailer relationships along with rapid customer demand. Instacart claims that it is now accessible to over 50% of Canadian households to go along with more than 70% of US households.

Online groceries delivery service Instacart announces new tech hub in Canada. Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles/Freedigitalphotos.net.

Apoorva Mehta – CEO of Instacart, commenting on the new Instacart North tech hub, said: “As a Canadian and alumni of the University of Waterloo engineering school, I’m proud to see Canada, and Toronto in particular, grow to become one of the most influential tech hubs in North America.

“When I was a student at Waterloo, the perception was that you had to leave Toronto and head to Silicon Valley to make an impact in tech. Today, that’s no longer the case, as Toronto has quickly become one of the hottest tech markets in the world.

“The innovation and talent coming out of Canada are world-class and Instacart is excited to invest in this growing community as we focus on unlocking more value for our customers and delivering them the groceries they want from the local brands they love.”

Instacart had also announced a pilot program with Walmart Canada, last month which offers same-day grocery delivery in the Greater Toronto Area and Winnipeg.

The same-day grocery delivery with the Walmart subsidiary adds on to the partnership of Instacart with Loblaw since December 2017, through which it provides grocery delivery from 250 plus Loblaw stores from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, with the backing of thousands of dedicated shoppers.

Instacart has close to 600 full-time employees in the US and Canada. The online groceries delivery service has tie-ups with 300 plus retail partners and offers grocery delivery services from 15,000 different stores across serving over 4,000 cities across North America.