NEW YORK, United States—US grocery delivery startup Instacart surged in its stock market debut Tuesday, gaining more than 30 percent in a sign of revived Wall Street appetite for IPOs.
Near 1730 GMT shares of the company, which trade on Nasdaq as “CART”, stood at $39.85, up around 33 percent, after earlier rising as much as 43 percent.
That equates to a market value of around $11 billion, well below the $39 billion in 2021 during a capital raise when sales were lifted by Covid-19 lockdowns.
“The markets have readjusted greatly between then and now,” said Instacart Chief Executive Fidji Simo in an interview on CNBC.
Instacart had announced on Monday night that it would be introduced to the market at a price of $30 a share, at the high end of a range disclosed previously by the company.]
The Instacart launch marked a second straight strong stock debut following last week’s arrival of Arm, a British semiconductor company.
Investors are also awaiting the Wednesday premier of Klaviyo, which specializes in automated marketing through emails and text messages.
Founded in 2012, Instacart partners with some 1,400 national and local retail businesses to facilitate online grocery orders, pickups and deliveries.
The venture capital backed-startup saw its business soar early in the coronavirus pandemic as people avoided grocery stores due to the risks from Covid-19.
The company’s business went on to cool, however, leading to a cut in its workforce of shoppers.
The company managed 263 million orders in the year ending June 30, 2023 accounting for $29.4 billion in gross transaction value, according to a securities filing.
That resulted in profits of $744 million on revenues of $2.2 billion.