Instacart Adds $150 Million Two Months After Last Funding

(Bloomberg) -- Online grocery delivery operator Instacart Inc. is adding more money to a previous round of venture financing from February, bringing the total to $350 million to fund a battle with Amazon.com Inc.

The San Francisco-based company said on Thursday that it raised $150 million in the round led by Coatue Management, on top of the $200 million investment that came primarily from Coatue and Glade Brook Capital Partners first reported by Bloomberg in February. Instacart said it doesn't plan to sell any more shares at the current price.

With the additional funding, Instacart's valuation rises to $4.35 billion, a spokesman said. Most of the cash from last year's $400 million investment is untouched, he said. Unlike some other highly valued startups like Uber Technologies Inc., WeWork Cos. and Slack Technologies Inc., Instacart didn't allow early investors or employees to sell stock as part of the new deal. The transaction was reported earlier Thursday by news website Axios.

Instacart has been pushing to ink partnerships to deliver goods from large retailers to compete with Amazon. The world's largest e-commerce business now owns Whole Foods—a longtime Instacart partner—and started delivering its groceries earlier this year. Instacart responded by signing a deal with Sam's Club, a division of Amazon rival Walmart Inc., in February.

Meanwhile, Instacart's delivery contract with Whole Foods, which it signed before Amazon bought the grocer, remains in question. Instacart once said it had exclusive delivery rights to most Whole Foods goods but has declined to comment on whether Amazon's new Whole Foods delivery service violates that contract. The two rival delivery carriers make for awkward situations at some Whole Foods stores, where Instacart workers now pack brown grocery bags alongside the workers Amazon hired to compete with them.

To contact the author of this story: Ellen Huet in San Francisco at ehuet4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Robin Ajello

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.