Fidji Simo’s long-awaited Instacart IPO is finally here
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Parade's cofounder and CEO will exit amid the brand's acquisition, Spain's soccer federation deals with the fallout of a nonconsensual World Cup kiss, and Instacart tests the IPO waters. Have a productive Monday.
- Ready for delivery. Fidji Simo's tenure as CEO of Instacart has been defined by one question: when will the grocery delivery service go public?
The former Facebook executive became Instacart's CEO in mid-2021, following a pandemic boom in grocery delivery that benefitted the startup. She took the job around the same time Instacart founder and recently resigned CEO Apoorva Mehta was pitching Doordash on buying the startup. That didn't pan out, and the episode cast a shadow over the leadership handoff.
Simo began executing on a new business model that aimed to expand from grocery delivery into tech products for retail partners, as Fortune senior writer Maria Aspan explored in a 2021 profile. As might be expected for a former Facebook exec, she built an ads business that allows brands to advertise to shoppers within the app.
While Simo prepped the business for an IPO, the stock market grew more volatile. So the listing, expected for 2022, was delayed. Meanwhile, the company kept slashing its valuation from a high of $39 billion down to $10 billion.
On Friday, the company finally filed for its long-awaited IPO. In its filing, Instacart revealed it earned $2.5 billion in revenue and $428 million in profit last year. It referenced its past rapid growth as a risk factor—warning investors that such growth may not continue. And Instacart's core grocery delivery business is showing signs of slowing growth, making Simo's expanded business model more critical.
Instacart's IPO will be closely watched by other startups; it's one of few tech companies to test the waters and resume public listings after months of minimal listing activity. While Simo isn't Instacart's founder, with a few years as CEO under her belt she will be the one to shepherd Instacart to the Nasdaq bell.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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