Instacart taps Goldman Sachs to lead IPO at $30B valuation -sources

Instacart has picked Goldman Sachs Group Inc to lead its initial public offering (IPO), which could come early next year and value the U.S. grocery delivery app at around $30 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Instacart was valued at $17.7 billion last month, when it raised $200 million in a private fundraising round. Were the IPO to push Instacart's valuation to close to $30 billion, it would underscore the rapid growth of its business as more consumers turn to it to shop for groceries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The San Francisco-based company is accelerating its IPO plans after voters in California backed a ballot proposal last week that upheld the status of app-based delivery drivers as independent contractors. This was a boost for the likes of Instacart and Uber Technologies Inc, which rely on people to work independently and not as employees.

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The sources requested anonymity because the IPO preparations are confidential. Instacart and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

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Instacart has been expanding its delivery business to non-grocery goods, serving customers of major stores such as Walmart Inc, beauty product retailer Sephora and convenience store 7-Eleven.

Launched in 2012 and led by its co-founder Apoorva Mehta, Instacart's order volumes have surged as much as 500% this year, as consumers shopped online during the coronavirus outbreak.

Instacart's investors include venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and D1 Capital Partners, according to PitchBook data.

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Several Silicon Valley unicorns are preparing for their stock market debut in the next few weeks, including home-rental startup Airbnb Inc, online retailer Wish Inc and food-delivery service DoorDash Inc.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin in New York and Anirban Sen in Bangalore; Editing by Tom Brown)