Tipping Point
In 2017, the online grocery market reached a tipping point. Offering customers the ability to buy their groceries online went from being a nice to have to being mission critical for grocery retailers. As a result, 7 of top 8 North American grocers jumped on to the Instacart marketplace. This brings us to nearly 200 grocery partners; simply put, North America’s favorite grocery stores are now delivering via Instacart.
Of course, this tipping point would never have happened had it not been for customers demanding grocery delivery. In 2017, we noticed that more customers started to rely on Instacart to deliver their weekly groceries than ever before and our Express subscriber base grew by 300%. Best of all, this was not only something that was a phenomenon in big cities — it was nationwide! We found that the Instacart model not only works but thrives in smaller and less dense regions. As a result, we launched over 160 new metropolitan areas this year and Instacart is now available to 70 million households across US and Canada.
While we’ve made significant progress to date, the truth is: we are just getting started. To this end, I am pleased to share that we have just closed $200 million in Series E financing led by Coatue Management, valuing the company at approximately $4.2 billion. I am also very excited to welcome Glade Brook Capital Partners to our team and, as always, thankful for the support of our existing investors.
In the next few years, we will be working hard to innovate for our customers by offering them more convenience and better selection at competitive prices. Recognizing that our shoppers need better tools and processes to be able to offer great customer service, we will be investing in building robust shopper support teams and software. And, of course, we will continue to grow sales for our retailers & CPG partners by strengthening our partnerships and innovating together.
There is a fever pitch of excitement in our industry and we are truly grateful to be able to lead the charge in transforming the grocery ecommerce landscape. Of course, none of this would be possible without the hard work, dedication and partnership of every Shopper, Customer and Retailer in the Instacart Community. Thank you for your support. We could not be more excited about the future we will build together.
Sincerely,
Apoorva Mehta
Founder & CEO
We are hiring! Help us transform the way people shop for food: click here.
