Headlines

Instacart Defends Against Amazon Delivery Services

Raises capital, inks deals with grocers to compete

Published

6 years ago

February 12, 2018

kmpeyton

The popular grocery delivery service, Instacart (San Francisco), has raised $200 million in the wake of Amazon.com Inc. (Seattle) rolling out free two-hour delivery of Whole Foods (Austin, Texas) groceries in four U.S. markets.

The round of fundraising, led by investment firms Coatue Management (New York) and Glade Brook Capital Partners (Greenwich, Conn.), brings the company’s total funding value to $4.2 billion, reports Bloomberg. Amazon’s market value is $649 billion.

To defend against Amazon eating up its market share, Instacart is partnering with traditional grocery retailers, including Albertson’s (Boise, Idaho) and Costco Wholesale Corp. (Issaquah, Wash.). Whole Foods is another partner of Instacart’s, due to contracts signed before it was acquired by Amazon.

“We raised capital because we want to win,” said Apoorva Mehta, co-founder and ceo of Instacart. The brand plans to expand its service outside its current 190 operating markets in the U.S. and Canada.

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