Instacart valued at $7.6 billion after latest funding round

(Reuters) - Grocery delivery startup Instacart on Tuesday said it has raised $600 million in its latest funding round, adding to its war chest as it competes against heavyweights like Amazon.con Inc and valuing the company at $7.6 billion.

The San-Francisco-based company has been steadily growing in the last few years, helped by partnerships more than 300 retailers including Walmart, Aldi Inc and Kroger Co.

The latest funding was led by investment firm D1 Capital Partners, raising Instacart's funding till date to more than $1.6 billion. The company said it would use the capital to further expand in North America and also invest in marketing and hiring.

The company said it now has about $1.2 billion in cash to spend on expanding its business in North America.

Instacart has nearly 600 full-time employees across North America and plans to hire a total of about 500 new employees in its Toronto and Atlanta in the next few years.

The company also said it expects an initial public offering to be on the horizon but did not give specific timing.

The company is set to double grocery orders to over $3 billion in grocery orders this year, news website The Information reported earlier this month.

(Reporting by Soundarya J and Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)