Instacart

Instacart was founded in 2012 by Apoorva Mehta, a former Amazon supply chain engineer, along with Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo, building a marketplace that lets customers order groceries online from local grocery stores, with independent contractor "shoppers" then physically visiting the store, selecting the ordered items, and delivering them to the customer's home, a model that let Instacart quickly scale grocery delivery across many retailers and markets without needing to build its own physical grocery stores or warehouses, in contrast to some other grocery delivery approaches that require dedicated fulfillment infrastructure. The company built partnerships with a very large number of grocery retailers across the United States and Canada, ranging from large national chains to regional and specialty grocers, letting these retailers offer online ordering and delivery through the Instacart platform and app without each needing to build their own delivery technology and logistics network independently, an important value proposition for grocery retailers, an industry that has historically operated on relatively thin profit margins and where building sophisticated proprietary e-commerce and delivery infrastructure independently would represent a very significant capital investment for most individual grocery chains. Instacart experienced enormous growth during the COVID-19 pandemic as grocery delivery demand surged amid social distancing measures, though growth normalized considerably as pandemic-driven demand receded. The company has increasingly built out a retail media advertising business, letting consumer packaged goods brands advertise their products directly within the Instacart shopping experience, a high-margin revenue stream that has become an increasingly significant part of Instacart's business model, alongside licensing its underlying e-commerce and fulfillment technology directly to grocery retailers for their own websites and apps. Instacart went public via a traditional initial public offering on the Nasdaq in September 2023, and competes with other grocery delivery services including Amazon Fresh, Walmart+, and DoorDash's grocery delivery offerings.

News

11/5/2026

DoorDash Acquires Instacart for $65 Per Share to Boost Grocery Delivery

This acquisition enhances DoorDash's grocery delivery capabilities by leveraging Instacart's software and customer base, integrating restaurant listings and DashPass memberships.

PYMNTS.com

11/1/2026

DoorDash Acquires Instacart for $17 Billion, Merging Services

This acquisition enhances customer access to over 50,000 stores and streamlines subscription services, expected to close by 2028.

Yahoo Finance

10/26/2026

Instacart Winds Down Smart Cart Business Amid Sale Talks

Instacart will stop offering its Smart Cart technology to grocers, marking its first strategy shift since reports of a potential sale and signaling a sharper focus on core delivery operations amid takeover talks.

Bloomberg

10/24/2026

DoorDash agrees to acquire Instacart for about $17 billion

The $17 billion deal unites major restaurant and grocery delivery networks, bolstering DoorDash against Amazon and Walmart, reshaping the online grocery market and likely drawing regulatory scrutiny before closing.

The Information

TechCrunch

The Information

10/24/2026

Instacart shares rise 9.2% amid acquisition talks with Uber and DoorDash

Instacart's stock jumps as the company explores a potential sale, valued at approximately $12 billion, while facing possible antitrust scrutiny.

Yahoo Finance