How is Instacart trying to ensure the first major initial public offering of a venture-backed company in more than 18 months goes smoothly? By getting support from some of its friends…and the Norwegian government.
In the paperwork it filed Friday, Instacart named Pepsi, one of its major advertisers, as an investor that will buy $175 million of new convertible shares at the IPO price in a separate private placement. Instacart and its lead underwriter Goldman Sachs also said they had lined up investors to buy as much as $400 million worth of stock at whatever price is set in the IPO. Those include new investors TCV and Norges Bank, which is the investing arm of the Norwegian central bank, as well as existing shareholders D1 Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital and Valiant Capital Management.
