WEALTH

Instacart has chosen Goldman Sachs Group Inc to spearhead its initial public offering (IPO), which could come early in 2021 and the U.S. grocery delivery app is estimated to be around US$30 billion. Just last month, Instacart managed to raise US$200 million in a private fundraising round which propelled its valuation to US$17.7 billion.

The San Francisco-based company is accelerating its IPO plans after voters in California backed a ballot proposal last week that upheld the status of app-based delivery drivers as independent contractors. This was a boost for the likes of Instacart and Uber Technologies Inc, which rely on people to work independently and not as employees.

Launched in 2012 and led by its co-founder Apoorva Mehta, Instacart has been aggressively expanding its delivery services to non-grocery goods, serving customers from the likes of Walmart Inc., beauty product retailer Sephora and convenience store 7-Eleven. Since the pandemic, Instacart orders have increased almost 500%. This has drawn the attention of prominent venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and D1 Capital Partners.

This comes as several American unicorns from the Silicon Valley – Airbnb, Wish Inc and DoorDash Inc – are set for their debut on the NYSE in the coming weeks ahead.