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A smartphone with displayed Instacart logo is seen in this illustration. Picture: DADO RUVIC/REUTERS
A smartphone with displayed Instacart logo is seen in this illustration. Picture: DADO RUVIC/REUTERS

Bengaluru — Instacart is aiming for a valuation of up to $7.73bn, the grocery delivery company said on Monday, in its march towards a hotly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) that is expected to revive the market for stock flotations in the US.

The targeted value is much cheaper than the $39bn price tag the San Francisco-based company had fetched in its last funding round in 2021, when easy money helped several start-ups reach sky-high valuations.

As the Federal Reserve (Fed) raised borrowing costs to tame inflation, several high-flying start-ups have had to raise funds at lower valuations. Instacart too has had to cut its internal valuation to as low as $10bn in December in its long walk towards a Nasdaq debut.

It is expected to list in September, almost three years after Reuters reported that the company had picked Goldman Sachs to lay the groundwork for an IPO.

Instacart would join SoftBank’s chip designer Arm and marketing automation firm Klaviyo, which are also gearing up for market debuts in September. If successful, the listings could nurture a nascent recovery in the US IPO market amid growing expectations of a pause in rate hikes by the Fed.

The rush towards market debuts follows a lull in new listings for a major part of the past two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a surge in borrowing costs.

Instacart and its selling shareholders are looking to raise up to $616m by offering 22-million shares priced between $26 and $28 each, it said in a regulatory filing. It filed for the IPO as “Maplebear,” the name under which it is incorporated. Its shares are expected to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol “CART”.

Cornerstone investors Norges Bank Investment Management, a division of Norges Bank, and entities affiliated with venture capital firms TCV, Sequoia Capital, D1 Capital Partners and Valiant Capital Management have agreed to buy up to $400m of Instacart’s stock, the filing said.

Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are the lead underwriters.

Reuters

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