Instacart files for IPO as a logjam of would-be publicly traded companies eye their market debuts
Instacart has joined chip designer Arm in moving ahead with an initial public offering, disclosing net income of $242 million for the first half of the year and adding momentum to a return of high-profile listings.
The largest US online grocery delivery company disclosed in its filing Friday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that PepsiCo Inc. will be buying $175 million in preferred convertible stock. The San Francisco-based company won’t disclose the price and size of its planned share sale until later filings.
An Instacart listing could further energize an IPO market that has been warming in fits and starts. Semiconductor designer Arm, majority owned by SoftBank Group Corp., filed Monday for what promises to be the year’s biggest IPO, which is expected in September.
Marketing and data automation provider Klaviyo filed Friday for an IPO and footwear maker Birkenstock is also gearing up, Bloomberg News has reported. Behind them are dozens of startups whose IPO aspirations have been stymied by the slowest year at this point for new listings since the depths of the financial crisis in 2009.
Founded in 2012, Instacart, which is incorporated as Maplebear Inc., has been preparing to go public for years, hoping to capitalize on its surging popularity during the coronavirus pandemic as online shopping for groceries became the norm and, in some cases, a necessity.
Instacart raised $2.74 billion as a startup and was valued at $39 billion in 2021, according to data provider PitchBook. But as the pandemic waned and diners began to emerge from lockdowns and return to restaurants and wandering the aisles at grocery stores, Instacart’s growth faded too, forcing the company to slash its internal valuation three times last year to about $13 billion by last October.
Its long list of investors includes firms such as Tiger Global Management, Coatue Management and D1 Capital Partners, according to PitchBook.
The offering is being led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. The company plans for its shares to trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CART.
