US delivery service Instacart is going public, pricing its shares for an initial public offering (IPO) at USD 30 apiece. The value of the company thus reaches about ten billion dollars, reported CNBC.
The most anticipated stock market entry
The company saw strong growth during the covid-19 pandemic, when people were forced to stay at home due to imposed closures. Instacart’s stock market entry is one of the most anticipated this year. The venture is the first major venture capital-backed technology company to go public in the US since December 2021.
“Instacart has a very interesting and simple business model. In the app or on the website, you choose the food and goods you want to buy, as we know from services like Cornerstone. You can choose from more than 5,500 retailers ranging from supermarkets, perfume retailers, drugstores to fast food,” XTB analyst Štěpán Hájek told ČTK.
Beginning trading today
The stated subscription price is at the high end of the expected range of $28 to $30 per share. The IPO sold 22 million shares, with 14.1 million coming from the company and 7.9 million from existing shareholders. Instacart shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq market in New York today, under the symbol CART.
Founded in 2012, Instacart had to significantly reduce its asking valuation before making plans to go public. In early 2021, at the height of the pandemic, Instacart secured funding at a valuation of the entire company of around $39 billion. It cashed in $125 per share then, about four times more than it does now. Back then, money was provided by development and venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, along with large asset managers Fidelity and T. Rowe Price.
Source Czech Press Office
