Grocery delivery app Instacart aims for up to $7.7 bn valuation in US IPO

Instacart is aiming for a valuation of up to $7.73 billion in its initial public offering in New York, the grocery delivery service said on Monday, in another step toward a hotly-anticipated listing.

The San Francisco-based company and its selling shareholders are looking to raise up to $616 million by offering 22 million shares priced between $26 and $28 each, it said in a regulatory filing.

It is expected to list its shares in September, joining high profile names such as SoftBank's chip designer Arm and marketing automation firm Klaviyo that are testing investor appetite for new listings.

The rush toward market debuts follows a lull in U.S. IPO market for a major part of the last two years following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a surge in borrowing costs.

If successful, the listings by Arm, Instacart and Klaviyo could nurture a nascent recovery in new listings amid growing expectations of a pause in interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Instacart's long road to a New York listing saw the company reportedly cut its internal valuation to as low as $10 billion in December 2022, compared to the $39 billion price tag it had fetched in its last funding round more than two years ago.

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.

"Goldman Sachs and J.P.Morgan are the lead underwriters.