Grocery delivery service Instacart is launching a new health division as the company prepares for its upcoming IPO.
Instacart Health will include new products focused on providing nutritious food, strategic partnerships with organizations such as Partnership for a Healthier America, and food policy advocacy, such as expanding online access to assistance programs EBT SNAP and TANF.
One of Instacart’s new offerings is Fresh Funds, a program that gives nonprofits, insurers, and employers a way to provide cash for nutritious food. It will also launch Care Carts, a service that allows providers and caregivers to place grocery orders on behalf of a patient or family member.
Instacart said companies like the home hospital business Medically at home and digital nutrition startup Health of the season are already using this tool. Health Tags, another new offering, will add new food labels to its app, such as low-salt, low-sugar, keto, and gluten-free.
On the partnerships front, Instacart is working with Hearst Magazines to expand its recipe library and is collaborating with a weight loss company Found to add their nutritional tips and recipes to the app. He will also work with Partnership for a Healthier America to raise funds to provide fruits and vegetables to food-insecure families.
“Our country’s hunger and health issues are complex and require cross-sector collaboration. At Instacart, we develop the technologies that can help many organizations – healthcare providers, insurers, nonprofits, employers and health experts – to give more people access to fresh, nutritious food with dignity, speed and convenience,” Instacart CEO Fiji Simo said in a statement.
THE GREAT TREND
Instagram launched ten years ago in the San Francisco Bay Area and has since expanded its grocery delivery services to other cities in the United States and Canada.
In May, he filed a draft registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to prepare for an IPO. Information recently reported that Instacart has laid off workers, slowing the pace of hiring and cutting spending ahead of its public procurement debut.
The company grew during the COVID-19 pandemic as consumers opted to stay home to avoid infection, but in March Instacart reduced its valuation to about $24 billion out of $39 billion.
Other delivery and ride-sharing technology companies like Uber and Lyft also extended to the field of health. Nutrition-focused digital health startups include Culina Health, which offers virtual appointments with dietitians and recently raised $4.75 millionand Season Health, one of Instacart’s Care Carts partners.
It allows patients to make meal plans based on their health needs and have food delivered to their homes. In April, Season announced that it had recovered $34 million in Series A funding.