[ad_1]
<div _ngcontent-c15 = "" innerhtml = "
Chief Executive Officer Apoorva Mehta has bet that Instacart could help grocers defend themselves against Amazon. Now he has to prove that he was right.Timothy Archibald for Forbes
Just six months after raising $ 350 million, Instacart added an additional $ 600 million to its war chest by stepping up its war against Amazon in grocery delivery games. The money brings the Instacart funding in 2018 to a total of $ 950 million and a total of $ 1.6 billion.
Daniel Sundheim's new hedge fund, D1 Capital Partners, led the round after approaching the company earlier this year. Apoorva Mehta, CEO of Instacart, described the funding as "quite opportunistic" and said he had not spent most of the money in previous funding cycles. Today, the bank has more than 1.2 billion dollars.
This is the money needed in case Instacart finds itself in an expensive delivery war with Amazon. Since the online retailer acquired Whole Foods last year, Instacart claims that its business has worked well, even though the status of its exclusive delivery contract with Whole Foods is in question. The San Francisco-based startup has retailers ranging from Kroger to Aldi to Costco. It is now available in all 50 states.
"The reality is that the grocery store is at a turning point," says Mehta. "A few years ago, the question was whether people would buy groceries online. Now, it's not so, it's a moment. "
For the moment, Mehta insists that Instacart will double its activity. He plans to double his engineering team in 2019 and the company has recently added offices in Atlanta and Toronto.
Although he does not necessarily need the money, Mehta said that the company wanted to work with Sundheim in particular, given its experience in private and public markets. When asked to make public, Mehta would not commit to a timetable, but said that an initial public offering is "on the horizon" for the society.
"We believe that the opportunity that awaits us is so exciting," said Mehta. "When you look at the numbers associated with this market, where the purchase is estimated at nearly a trillion dollars, it puts the amount of capital together into perspective. It just allows us to be ambitious. "
">
CEO Apoorva Mehta has bet that Instacart could help grocers defend themselves from Amazon. Now he has to prove that he was right.Timothy Archibald for Forbes
Just six months after raising $ 350 million, Instacart added an additional $ 600 million to its war chest by stepping up its war against Amazon in grocery delivery games. The money brings the Instacart funding in 2018 to a total of $ 950 million and a total of $ 1.6 billion.
Daniel Sundheim's new hedge fund, D1 Capital Partners, led the round after approaching the company earlier this year. Apoorva Mehta, CEO of Instacart, described the funding as "quite opportunistic" and said he had not spent most of the money in previous funding cycles. Today, the bank has more than 1.2 billion dollars.
This is the money needed in case Instacart finds itself in an expensive delivery war with Amazon. Since the online retailer acquired Whole Foods last year, Instacart claims that its business has worked well, even though the status of its exclusive delivery contract with Whole Foods is in question. The San Francisco-based startup has retailers ranging from Kroger to Aldi to Costco. It is now available in all 50 states.
"The reality is that the grocery store is at a turning point," says Mehta. "A few years ago, the question was whether people would buy groceries online. Now, it's not so, it's a moment. "
For the moment, Mehta insists that Instacart will double its activity. He plans to double his engineering team in 2019 and the company has recently added offices in Atlanta and Toronto.
Although he does not necessarily need the money, Mehta said that the company wanted to work with Sundheim in particular, given its experience in private and public markets. When asked to make public, Mehta would not commit to a timetable, but said that an initial public offering is "on the horizon" for the society.
"We believe that the opportunity that awaits us is so exciting," said Mehta. "When you look at the numbers associated with this market, where the purchase is estimated at nearly a trillion dollars, it puts the amount of capital together into perspective. It just allows us to be ambitious. "
