Instacart shares soar 43% in Nasdaq debut
(Reuters) -Instacart's shares jumped 43% in their Nasdaq debut on Tuesday, giving the grocery delivery app a valuation of nearly $14 billion.
The San Francisco-based company's IPO was priced at the top end of its $28 to $30 price range, raising a total of $660 million in proceeds, out of which $237 million will go to investors who sold their shares in the offering.
The IPO gave Instacart a valuation of nearly $9.9 billion, a fraction of the $39 billion it was worth in 2021, the company's last funding round.
Instacart's strong debut, along with that of chip designer Arm and RayzeBio last week, could encourage other startups to test the waters and potentially revive the IPO market after a near 18-month dry spell.
Instacart is debuting almost three years after kicking off preparations for going public and several startups have had to take a cut to their valuations since 2022 as inflation, geopolitical tensions and the Federal Reserve's rapid rate hikes soured the economic climate.
The company's long slog to Nasdaq featured some key moments.
In 2021, its co-founder Apoorva Mehta stepped down after seven years at the helm and named Fidji Simo, the former head of Meta's Facebook (NASDAQ:META) app, its CEO.
Its core business also turned profitable in 2022, and the trend has continued in the first six months of 2023, the company disclosed in its regulatory filing last month.
Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters for Instacart's IPO.
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