A shopper prepares fill his cart at a Giant supermarket in Washington, DC, April 6, 2020.
Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Grocery delivery platform Instacart said late Wednesday it has filed a draft registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), paving the way for the firm to list its shares.
The grocery delivery company was valued at $39 billion in March 2021, when it raised $265 million. That made Instacart one of the most valuable venture-backed companies in the U.S. at that time.
However, it said in March it was slashing its valuation by almost 40% to about $24 billion, to reflect this year’s sell-off in technology stocks.
This development comes at a volatile time for tech stocks in the U.S. this year, with the Nasdaq tumbling nearly 30% from last November’s high.
For Instacart, the last few years have been a roller-coaster. Faced with a challenging business model heading into 2020, the company got a major boost during the Covid-19 pandemic as many consumers cut trips to the supermarket and turned to online grocery orders.
But twin concerns of accelerating inflation and projections for higher interest rates sent risky assets into a tailspin starting in November.
Instacart, however, has said its business outlook remained strong.
The company is trying to expand beyond its core marketplace, announcing this week a software suite to sell to supermarkets, along with a fulfillment service called Carrot Warehouses, which is intended to help grocers offer 15-minute delivery.
— CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.