Instacart Acquires Instaleap to Fuel International Expansion

Instacart says it has acquired Colombia-based grocery technology firm Instaleap.

The deal, announced Tuesday (April 14), is designed to promote Instacart’s global expansion while adding to its technological capabilities.

“We see a meaningful opportunity to expand internationally through an enterprise-led strategy that empowers retailers across the globe to meet the evolving omnichannel needs of their customers,” Ryan Hamburger, Instacart chief commercial officer, said in a news release.

“We’ve already seen growing global demand for our online and in-store technologies, including Storefront Pro and Caper Carts, with early traction in Europe and Australia. With the addition of Instaleap’s technology, international expertise, and deep retail relationships, we can accelerate our international expansion and better serve retailers and consumers around the world.”

Instaleap’s technology, the release added, is designed to meet “core retailer needs” such as marketplace integrations and fulfillment services. The company has relationships with close to 100 grocery retailers and marketplaces outside North America and operations in nearly 30 countries in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

Writing in February about Instacart’s most recent earnings report, PYMNTS argued that the company has been “positioning itself as a technology enablement layer for grocers that want true omnichannel capabilities without stitching together point solutions.”

In its shareholder letter, Instacart said its marketplace now spans more than 2,200 retail banners and almost 100,000 locations, while its Storefront technology powers upwards of 380 grocers’ eCommerce sites.

Elsewhere in the world of supermarket technology, PYMNTS wrote this week about efforts by the likes of Tesco, Albertsons and Walmart to use AI-powered shopping assistants “that convert a meal question into a ready-to-checkout grocery basket.”

“Each of these tools keeps discovery, selection and payment inside the retailer’s own platform. That matters as third-party AI systems grow capable of intercepting the same customer journey,” that report said.

OpenAI recently said it would end its Instant Checkout feature, which allows shoppers to purchase directly through ChatGPT, and is shifting its focus to facilitating sales through retailers’ dedicated apps within the chatbot.

Around the same time, Google updated its shopping agent platform, letting it load real-time product data, and allowing users to add multiple items to carts, and connect loyalty memberships.

“A shopper who plans meals and builds a cart through a general-purpose AI platform takes transaction data and discovery behavior with them,” PYMNTS added. “The retailer loses visibility into what drove the purchase, what was considered and rejected, and which promotions landed.”