EQUITYZEN USERS COMMUNITY/COMPANIES OVERVIEW
Instacart Pre IPO Overview
Instacart to go public in 2022, being a relatively stable business with lack of potential to become a unicorn or disrupt the market. Instacart is very similar to Discord (check out an article). They both are middle peasants with plans of IPO by the end of 2022.
You can learn some common facts about Instacart from the Market Drop Review by Xenia KS.
In this article, I’ll move on to the full review of Instacart. I’ll try to calculate an overall Instacart score thanks to stoplight scoring!
- in this review, I refer to third-party data that I was able to find and access; I always cite primary sources, which you can access by clicking on the hyperlinks
- I am not responsible for the quality of the data presented on third-party resources
- I guarantee the correctness of the information obtained from official sources, while some data in the document is given as is — according to unverified data from an unofficial source — in this case, the value is preceded by “approximately” ~ and the data itself is written in italics
- I deliberately regard data from some sites as insufficiently reliable, but I use them to reflect general dynamics
- the conclusions and estimates set forth herein represent my personal view only, are for informational purposes only, and in no way constitute financial or investment advice
- the information in this document is not a prediction or guarantee of future results, and I am not responsible for any consequences of the use of the data provided
- investing is a high-risk activity, so potential investors should do their own research before entering into any deals and signing contracts
- this review was prepared for the EquityZen Community for informational purposes only
- I use multi-criteria evaluation for the selected companies by several criteria (each in the range from 1 to 3); I also output the final score and mark “red flags” (especially sensitive facts that could potentially affect future investments); the assessments reflect my understanding of the situation, they are not an incentive to action
Executive Summary
- Company: Instacart (10 years)
- Founded, Headquarters: 2012, San Francisco, California, USA
- Sector/Market: Grocery & Home Essentials Delivery Service, Market CAGR of 25.25%
- Investment history: 19 rounds in total, a total investment of $2.9B, valuation on the last round (2021) — $39.13B
- Revenues: estimated annual revenue for Instacart is currently $1.8B
- Probability of exit: high probability of IPO
- Glassdoor rating: 3.8* (5,400 reviews)
- Client rating: average (G2, Google Play, App Store) — 4.2*
Instacart Highlights
- Instacart is a B2C grocery delivery startup (Grocery & Home Essentials Delivery Service) that delivers in as little as an hour. Instacart specializes in grocery and home essentials delivery. Instacart’s catalog already includes more than 500,000 items from local stores. Customers can choose from various local stores, including Safeway, Whole Foods, Super Fresh, Harris Teeter, Shaw’s, Mariano’s, Jewel-Osco, Stanley, and Costco. Customers can mix items from multiple stores into one order.
- Mission: “At Instacart, our mission is to create a world where everyone has access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together”. ©
- In 2021, the company boasted nearly 10 million active users and more than 500,000 “shoppers,” as Instacart calls its delivery drivers.
- Instacart partners with top national and regional retailers such as Albertsons, ALDI, Costco, CVS, Kroger, Loblaw, Publix, Sam’s Club, Sprouts, Wegmans, and others. The Instacart shopping site offers more than 300 retailers and trusted local grocers that shoppers love.
Origins & Offices
The company was founded in 2012 in the United States.
- San Francisco, California, USA (HQ)
- Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- Toronto, Canada
Social Media
Instacart has many subscribers, but the company’s activity in terms of publications is not particularly high.
C-level Executives
- Chief Executive Officer (CEO) (August 2021-present)
- Palo Alto, California, United States of America
- Fiji Simo is currently the CEO of Instacart. Prior to that, Fiji worked at Facebook for more than a decade. She has also been a board member at Shopify since 2021 and co-founded the Metrodora Institute. Fiji Simo studied at HEC Paris Business School (Master of Science in Management) from 2004–2008.
- Chief Technology Officer (CTO) (September 2018-present)
- San Francisco, California, United States of America
- Mark Schaaf currently works as Chief Technology Officer at Instacart. Prior to that, he was CTO of Thumbtack and held positions at AdMob. He also worked at Google as the company’s Senior CTO. Marc Schaaf studied at the University of Norte Dame from 1994–1998.
- Has its own patents for 2008.
- Chief Communications Officer (CCO) & Public Affairs Officer (July 2018-present)
- San Francisco, California, United States of America
- Previously, Dani Dudek led the global communications practice at Zynga. Dudek was an executive sponsor and member of the Women’s Advisory Council at Zynga, the largest and most active employee resource group at the company. Before joining Zynga, Dani led the public relations team at MySpace News Corp as the company’s vice president of global communications.
- Dani earned a double bachelor of arts degree in public relations and French from the University of Southern California.
- Chief Human Resources Officer (October 2020-present)
- San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States of America
- Christina Hall is a strategic human resources executive with more than 20 years of experience advancing talent goals at high-performing technology companies. As a CHRO, Christina’s priorities are to provide a positive workplace culture and empower people to do the best work of their lives, whether they worked in the office or at home. Earlier in her career, Christina Hall practiced law, focusing on executive compensation and employee compensation. Christine graduated from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (JD), Stanford University (BA, Political Science & History).
- She is active in volunteer work.
- Co-founder (2012-present)
- San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States of America
- Brandon Leonardo is the co-founder of Instacart. Brandon Leonardo also had 1 previous job as a team member at Pictacular. Brandon graduated from San Jose State University (Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, Minor Math, Minor Business).
- Has a large number of proven skills and references.
- Founder & Chairman (2012-present)
- San Francisco, California, United States of America
- An engineering graduate from the University of Waterloo, Apoorva Mehta worked as a design engineer at Blackberry and Qualcomm before joining Amazon.com as a supply chain engineer before founding Instacart in 2012.
C-level Executives Scoring — 3
Qualified and talanted CEO and tops (education and experience, awards and regalia), known and recognized in their field;
Periodically new cool C-levels come;
High activity of tops in terms of publications, interviews, events and awards.
Market and Competitors
- Delivery Service
- E-Commerce
- Grocery
- Shopping
Market in the narrow sense: Online Grocery Delivery Services
According to Technavio, the market for online grocery delivery services is expected to grow by $800.00 billion from 2020 to 2025, growing at an average of 25.25 percent (CARG) over the forecast period.
Competitors:
Instacart is one of the leading grocery delivery services in the United States and Canada. Although Instacart operates in both countries, its domestic availability is much higher. To provide third-party grocery services, the company partners with conventional retailers to deliver products from Instacart’s marketplace. In 2021, it accounted for 45% of the U.S. grocery delivery market, second only to retail giant Walmart.
Market and Competitors Scoring — 2
Medium/large market with growth prospects;
Relatively equal positions with several competitors: Walmart, Amazon (distributed market — oligopoly);
Partnerships with big players (with Walmart: Walmart Takes on Instacart With New Tech Partnership; Walmart Teams With Instacart In War With Amazon);
The company has managed to wean itself off competitors or offer a compilation of their technology (or any other competitive advantage).
Stocks and Investments
Total Funding Amount: $2.9B
Number of Funding Rounds: 19
Last Round: Venture Round (Mar 2021) — Val $39.13B (acc. to ForgeGlobal)
Stocks and Investments Scoring — 3
Valuation is growing;
There are no red flags;
Investments are regular (once a year or more), stable (follow-ons are present) — from the top investors.
Traction & News
All data on revenue is taken from public sources, the reliability of which I do not guarantee. However, based on the approximate revenue growth/decline dynamics, I can draw conclusions about its trends.
- Instacart’s Q2 2021 revenue was $1 billion
- The estimated annual revenue for Instacart is currently $1.8 billion per year
- Instacart revenue in 2021 was $1.8 billion
- 2022/06/23 — Instacart and Walmart join forces against DoorDash with a quick delivery test in Canada
- 2022/06/07 — Instacart is on the hunt for profits, doing more than just delivering groceries as the pandemic boom goes down. Here’s a rundown of its initiatives, from advertising to fulfillment services
- 2022/05/03 — Instacart expands in Canada; It can now reach 90% of households
- 2022/03/25 — Instacart reduces its own valuation from $39 Billion to $24 Billion
- 2021/10/07 — Instacart acquires catering software company FoodStorm
- 2019/02/06 — Following a recent class action lawsuit over wages and tips, and after drivers and customers spoke out about Instacart’s alleged practice of subsidizing wages with tips, Instacart is taking steps to ensure that tips are counted separately from what Instacart pays customers
Traction & News Scoring — 2
Moderate traction;
The stage of “preparation for progress/breakthrough” (the company is at the stage of long-term preparation for the release of something worthwhile), there is an active process of scaling, fighting with a large number of competitors;
There are problems, but the situation looks stable and consequences are probably not serious.
Culture & Team
I take reviews from Glassdoor and Comparably, where current and former employees anonymously leave company reviews. Sometimes there may be conflicting views, indicating a subjective perception of work at a particular company, rather than an error in review analysis.
A comparative table of overall company ratings:
The general trend of team reviews lately:
Positives based on reviews:
- “Flexible schedule; no one looking over my shoulder; scavenger hunt, and I love scavenger hunt; very relaxed nature; good pay.”
- “Good money when you get hours of hard work when there is work that keeps you moving, keeps you moving very little downtime.”
- “Wonderful people to work with and learn from!”
- “A flexible schedule is an amazing thing.”
Negatives based on reviews:
- “Pay at Instacart can be low and depends on tips to make payment as generous as necessary.”
- “Also, there are no perks to working here, and for all that, I’m deducting 3 stars.”
- “Bad (it doesn’t exist) training.”
- “20% of your paycheck goes to taxes, so you’re essentially earning less than minimum wage.”
Red flag — rating below 4*
Culture & Team Scoring — 1
Rating = 4–4.5*;
Less than 70% confidence in the CEO;
Consistently negative feedback.
Client Rating
- Reviews on G2: 3.7* (28 reviews)
- Google Play: 4.1* (200k reviews), App Store: 4.8* (2.5M reviews)
Client Rating Scoring — 2
Rating = 4–4.5* (average).
Exit
- Rumors of an Instacart IPO are spreading. The company is one of the most anticipated IPOs of 2022 after rapid growth. Moreover, the company recently filed confidentially with the SEC. Nevertheless, the company may find itself in a quandary…
- Grocery delivery service Instacart filed for an IPO in the U.S.
- Delivery company Instacart said it would cut its valuation by nearly 40 percent as tech stocks continue to experience turbulence in public markets.
Exit Scoring — 3
There are signals of an upcoming IPO.
Company Scoring
Before you go
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