Instacart names Sequoia partner, ex-COO Ravi Gupta to board
Instacart named former chief financial and operating officer Ravi Gupta to its board of directors Friday, formalizing a move after the grocery technology company went public earlier this week.
“There are new growth areas — Connected Stores, Instacart Health, AI — entire plethora of ways that the company’s going to innovate,” Gupta said in an interview ahead of the announcement. “Just being able to be around for that and provide opinions and weigh in on that is such a gift.”
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIndian School of BusinessISB Professional Certificate in Digital MarketingVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Applied Business AnalyticsVisitNorthwestern UniversityKellogg Post Graduate Certificate in Product ManagementVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Digital Marketing and AnalyticsVisitGupta spent four years at the company before leaving to become a partner at Sequoia Capital in 2019. Sequoia is the largest institutional shareholder of Instacart, with 18.5% of the company, based on the company’s filings.
Instacart, which is incorporated as Maplebear Inc., rose as much as 43% in its trading debut Tuesday before falling throughout the week in a sign of possible investor wariness about the company’s business model and a broader market selloff. It ended trading Thursday at $30.65, 2.2% above its listing price of $30.
Gupta was listed as a director nominee in the firm’s prospectus. He served as CFO between 2015 and 2019, and additionally served as COO from 2016 until his departure. During his time at Instacart, the company struck delivery partnerships with grocery retailers including Albertsons Cos., Kroger Co., ALDI and Publix.
The partnerships positioned Instacart to
