Whole Foods takes stake in delivery startup Instacart

San Francisco

AS MORE Whole Foods customers choose to avoid the store and get groceries delivered to their homes through Instacart, the high-end supermarket chain is taking a stake in the four-year-old startup.

Instacart Inc authorised the sale of new equity earlier this year, letting Whole Foods Market Inc buy shares in the startup in conjunction with an expanded partnership, said people familiar with the transaction who asked not to be identified because the details are private. Analysis by private stock market operator Equidate, based on a regulatory filing, pegged the total equity authorisation at about US$36 million.