Instacart’s latest valuation is tens of billions of dollars below what the company was once worth just a year ago, as the company attempts an initial public stock offering in a challenging climate for online delivery.
The grocery delivery company revealed in an updated IPO filing that it’s aiming to price its stock between $26 and $28 per share, valuing Instacart at around $7.4 billion at the midpoint. Monday’s valuation is far cry from the $24 billion it said it was worth last year and just a fifth of its $39 billion valuation from 2021.
It’s even less than what the Wall Street Journal reported just a day ago that Instacart was hoping to gain from its IPO. On Sunday, the Journal said Instacart was targeting a valuation of as much as $9.3 billion, indicating that investor interest in the company keeps falling.
When the company begins trading on the Nasdaq, it will trade under the ticker “CART.”
It’s not all bad news for the company: Instacart said in its filing Monday that it has a “history of losses,” but “recently began generating profit.” For the first half of 2023, it generated $242 million in profit, compared with a $74 million loss for the same time period a year ago.
Instacart was a pandemic darling, with its growth soaring during the height of the pandemic as consumers increasingly turned to its grocery delivery service. However, demand began to stabilize and some Instacart workers have begun feeling the effects of a sharp drop in orders. Competition has also increased from Amazon and Walmart as they improve their grocery delivery options.
Last year, Instacart unveiled new offerings to broaden the services it provides to retail partners, including a push into faster deliveries, a space where a number of emerging entrants are competing.
— CutC by cnn.com
