Check out your Company Bowl for anonymous work chats.
We’re proud to announce that Instacart has raised $225 million as part of a new financing round led by DST Global and General Catalyst, with existing investor D1 Capital Partners participating. This new fundraising increases Instacart’s valuation to $13.7 billion. The investment comes as Instacart continues to experience an unprecedented surge in customer demand for grocery delivery and pickup in North America. Overnight, Instacart has become an essential service and necessity for millions of families, and our teams stepped up to safely serve customers and shoppers in the wake of the pandemic. We’re proud to play an important role in helping feed families across North America and look forward to continuing to support customers, shoppers, and retailers for years to come. Get the full story in Bloomberg News, below ⤵️
In March, one of our key benchmarking metrics, our item "found rate" dipped by about 30%. It was a "shock to our system" according to our Director of Machine Learning, Sharath Rao. Our Machine Learning team reinvented our item availability model to predict what's on store shelves amidst bulk buying and product shortages—learn how in the full piece by Jonathan Vanian at Fortune, below!
We’re always working to make sure we offer the best possible experience for shoppers. We've made a few changes to the platform to provide more clarity around tips, confidence in the expected tip amount shoppers may receive from a customer, and faster and easier access to earnings. Read more below! ⤵️
"I am proud to hold two marginalized identities and to be the proof of the resilience of my ancestors. Even through adversity and hate, as minorities, we still decide to band together and persevere. I am unapologetically proud to be a QWOC (Queer Woman of Color)." - Lydia Johnson, Care Team Lead 🥕✊🏿🌈
Pride is a time to recognize and celebrate the richness and diversity of the LGBTQ+ community and amplify the voices of those who have been marginalized for simply being out and proud in this world. Given Black LGBTQ people experience magnified forms of discrimination because they belong to more than one marginalized community, we are committed to standing up for those in our community who are impacted by systemic racism. This Pride (and for every Pride hereafter), we are partnering closely with our Black ERG (Nightshades) to center around queer and trans people of color—from our internal programming, to the organizations we’ll be supporting, to the employees we will be highlighting—so keep your eyes on this space for updates! Additionally, this is the first Pride Month in its 51-year existence where we cannot be together to hold each other, comfort each other, cry together, laugh together. But even though we can’t stand together in person, we can stand together in spirit and solidarity.
We are deeply saddened by the senseless loss of life within the black community and the systemic inequality that still remains in our country today. We’ve taken a step back to examine what Instacart can do and we believe this work starts by supporting our internal teams, as well as helping black communities across North America. To that end, we’re investing $1 million to help support actionable change. First, we're investing $500K to compensate in-store shoppers and teams for any disruption to their shifts due to store closures or local curfews. Second, we're making a $250K donation to go to the Feeding America & Food Banks Canada network to support communities of color that are disproportionately struggling with food insecurity. We're also donating $250,000 to the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit that challenges racial and economic injustice on behalf of marginalized communities. We’ll continue to use our voice to be a positive force for change and look forward to continuing to listen, learn, and evolve as an organization. 🖤
Take a look at Instacart's evolution through the years, learn more about our new position as an essential service for consumers across North America, and see how we’re helping to shape the future of grocery in CNBC's latest piece from Magdalena Petrova.
Instacart delivery is now available from Rite Aid’s more than 2,400 locations across 18 states. Customers can visit either the Rite Aid or Instacart websites to access a full catalog of healthcare and grocery products from their local store. Read the full article from Winsight Grocery Business below!
"Beyond what might be temporary shifts, consumer habits appear to be changing in ways that may well endure beyond the pandemic and determine who will become the most important online players." Get the full scoop from The New York Times below. ⤵️
