You won’t find this nugget in Instacart’s IPO filing, nor is it likely to be noted on the company’s first-ever earnings call next week. Even most employees don’t know about it. But I found out recently that Publix—one of the largest grocery chains in the U.S. and a key Instacart customer—wrote a significant check in Instacart’s Series D fundraising round six years ago, alongside Sequoia Capital. It’s a delicious fact: A famed Florida sub-sandwich purveyor was right next to venture capital royalty on the Instacart cap table.
Why keep a seemingly insignificant detail like that under wraps? Possibly for competitive reasons. Instacart saw an edge in keeping its retail partners—particularly big regional chains like Publix—away from competitors like, say, DoorDash, which has also been driving to grow its grocery business.
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