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Instacart's Apoorva Mehta steps down
"Instacart has been my life’s work for more than a decade," Mehta had earlier said.
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Apoorva Mehta / X/@apoorva_mehta
Apoorva Mehta, an Indian Canadian businessman and co-founder of Maplebear Inc. (Instacart), a grocery delivery platform, has parted ways with the company. As the San Francisco-based company recently debuted on the stock market, the billionaire relinquished his board position as executive chairman to current CEO Fidji Simo.
On September 18, 2023, the 11-year-old company priced its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) at US$ 30 per share. "More than a decade ago, I was sitting in my apartment in San Francisco bemoaning the fact that the only thing I had in my refrigerator was hot sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love hot sauce, but you can’t exactly make it a meal," the entrepreneur born in India, posted on X.
Mehta recalled being inspired to start the company by an empty refrigerator. “Today, the company I founded in my kitchen is publicly traded ($CART)! I’m immensely grateful to the team that built @instacart. I also want to thank the hard-working community of shoppers, our incredible customers, our retail and CPG partners and our CEO @fidjissimo,” he said.
“Apoorva realized more than a decade ago that grocery delivery was a core consumer need. He worked tirelessly with the team to create and build a successful model that allows consumers to access same-day delivery from their favourite grocers. We are incredibly grateful to Apoorva for his commitment to growing Instacart and building something revolutionary,” current CEO Simo, said in July 2022, when the company announced its IPO plans.
India-born Mehta grew up in Canada and Libya. He studied engineering at the University of Waterloo and worked as a design engineer at Blackberry and Qualcomm. He moved to Seattle, Washington, to work at Amazon as a supply chain engineer, where he worked on Amazon’s Fulfillment Engine to deliver packages quickly and efficiently to customers.
He became a billionaire at the age of 33, in 2020, owning a ten per cent stake in Instacart. The company was valued at $39 billion in 2021. Mehta was included on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2013 and also on the Time 100 Next. He was also an investor in an artificial intelligence-led ad tech influencer marketing platform Kofluence.
While this is an important milestone, the work @instacart is only just beginning. I can’t wait to see how the team continues to transform the grocery industry. Onward!
— Apoorva Mehta (@apoorva_mehta) September 19, 2023
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