Instacart IPO Could Come Early 2021 With $30B Valuation

Instacart is reportedly preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) led by Goldman Sachs, according to Reuters, which cited people “familiar with the matter.”

The IPO could value the delivery app at about $30 billion and could be announced early in 2021, Reuters reported.

Instacart’s IPO could be one of the biggest of the year, according to news from October, when reports that the company could go public first surfaced. The reports followed the closing of a funding round that raised $200 million and brought the company’s valuation to $17.7 billion.

The funding, and the looming IPO, signal the accelerating growth of digital grocery shopping amid the pandemic. The proportion of consumers shopping online for groceries grew almost 400 percent from March to May of this year, PYMNTS previously reported. Likewise, Instacart has seen orders rise over 400 percent this year, as people hunkered down, stayed at home and prepared meals in their own kitchens.

A PYMNTS report found that the greatest change on consumer behavior over the pandemic can be found in grocery shopping, noting that, “Our research shows that 85.3 percent of consumers who have shifted to grocery shopping online plan to maintain at least some and possibly all of their new digital shopping habits.”

Instacart has moved into delivery of non-grocery items, teaming up with Sephora in September to offer same-day delivery of the personal care and beauty store’s products. The delivery firm also struck a deal with 7-Eleven in September, its first convenience store partner.

The news also comes a week after California voters approved Proposition 22, which keeps gig economy workers classified as contractors rather than employees. This benefits gig economy firms like Uber, Lyft and Instacart — keeping them from being required to drastically change their business models and provide employees health insurance and other benefits.

Approval of Proposition 22 effectively negates Assembly Bill 5, which passed last year in an effort to reclassify workers.