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Instacart’s long-awaited initial public offering on Tuesday made it one of the largest companies to go public this year, marking a potential turning point in the recent lull of public listings. But the grocery delivery service’s employees could be the real victors of the stock market debut, as the company relies on sales from existing shareholders, including workers, to drive its stock price.
“This IPO is not about raising money for us. It’s really about making sure that all employees can have liquidity on stock that they worked very hard for,” Instacart CEO Fidji Simo told CNBC’s Dierdre Bosa on Tuesday.
Receiving an equity stake is a major sell to entice top talent to join a startup venture, with the promise that they could one day see a big payout if the company succeeds. Stock offerings are expecially popular in tech compensation, comprising about 86% of a Silicon Valley worker’s net worth, according to Secfi, a company that helps startup employees manage their equity.
Instacart employees certainly stand to benefit. The grocery delivery business opened trading at $42 per share on Tuesday, placing it at a $14 billion valuation, but closed at $33.70 per share the same day. The company included a provision in its S-1 filing where, if the stock trades at more than 120% of its IPO price for five of at least 10 consecutive trading days (one of which must be after Instacart’s quarterly earnings announcement), employees can sell their stock sooner than the 180-day lock-up period most companies opt for.
According to a September 2022 Wall Street Journal report, the company wasn’t planning to raise much capital from investors ahead of its IPO, instead relying on employees selling their shares. So far, 36% of shares sold were from existing shareholders—and former employees, including those in executive roles as well as product and engineering, sold a combined 3.2 million shares. The move could also make the company more attractive to new employees seeking stock-based compensation.
But the company’s finances are still far from their pandemic golden days. Following its peak valuation of $39 billion in early 2021, the company started seeing a decline as pandemic-driven demand for grocery delivery services waned. As such, the company slashed its valuation by 40% to $24 billion, laid off an undisclosed number of workers, and froze hiring for some positions in September 2022. It again lowered its valuation to $13 billion in October that same year.
Instacart’s delicate relationship with its gig workers could also impact its success post-IPO. In its S-1 filing, the company said that failure to attract or retain these workers could hurt its business, as workers may leave the platform for reasons like displeasure with the company’s pay structure, which was recently cut from a minimum base pay of $7 to $4 per order.
Gig workers went on strike in March 2020 and October 2021 over an alleged lack of COVID-19 protections and Instacart’s payment structure. And late last year, Instacart agreed to a $46 million settlement in response to a California lawsuit alleging the company misclassified over 300,000 individuals as independent contractors instead of workers.
Paige McGlauflin
paige.mcglauflin@fortune.com
@paidion
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