In the high-stakes world of venture capital, timing is everything. For , the "time" was October 2020, when the grocery delivery giant announced a fresh $200 million funding round , catapulting its valuation to a staggering $17.7 billion .

A study by NERA Economic Consulting found that Instacart was responsible for creating approximately 186,000 additional jobs in the U.S. grocery industry between 2013 and early 2020, with 70,000 of those added during the height of the pandemic.

In less than ten months, Instacart more than doubled its paper value, driven by a compared to the previous year. 2. From "Luxury Service" to "Lifeline"