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Instacart Files Confidentially For An IPO That Could Happen This Year

Instacart’s public debut could come at a turbulent time in the stock market.

<div class="paragraphs"><p>Tyrita Franklin-Corbett, an Instacart worker. (Source: Reuters/Michael A. McCoy)</p></div>
Tyrita Franklin-Corbett, an Instacart worker. (Source: Reuters/Michael A. McCoy)

Instacart Inc., the grocery delivery platform, has confidentially filed documents for an initial public offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

A listing could happen as soon as this year though the timing could slip, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. The deliberations are ongoing and the company could still remain private, they said.

San Francisco-based Instacart is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley on an offering, the people said.

Representatives for Instacart, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

A beneficiary of the coronavirus pandemic, Instacart has struggled to keep up with the growth and announced in March that it was cutting its valuation 40% to $24 billion, Bloomberg News reported. The company was previously valued at $39 billion in a March 2021 funding round that included Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and D1 Capital Partners, as well as Fidelity Management & Research Co. and T. Rowe Price Associates Inc.

Instacart’s public debut could come at a turbulent time in the stock market. Only two IPOs of more than $500 million have priced this year in the US. Excluding blank-check firms, 52 companies have raised $4.4 billion this year, compared with 201 listings for a total of more than $71 billion during the same period in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. 

The performance of those newly public companies generally has been disappointing. The Renaissance IPO ETF is down 48% in the past year. 

Instacart underwent a series of management changes in the past year. Its chief executive officer, Fidji Simo, a former executive at Meta Platforms Inc., and Chief Financial Officer Nick Giovanni, a former Goldman Sachs banker, both joined in the past 18 months. 

The company’s former president, Carolyn Everson, stepped down in December. 

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