Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Parade’s cofounder and CEO will exit amid the brand’s acquisition, Spain’s soccer federation deals with the fallout of a nonconsensual World Cup kiss, and Instacart tests the IPO waters. Have a productive Monday.
– Ready for delivery. Fidji Simo’s tenure as CEO of Instacart has been defined by one question: when will the grocery delivery service go public?
The former Facebook executive became Instacart’s CEO in mid-2021, following a pandemic boom in grocery delivery that benefitted the startup. She took the job around the same time Instacart founder and recently resigned CEO Apoorva Mehta was pitching Doordash on buying the startup. That didn’t pan out, and the episode cast a shadow over the leadership handoff.
Simo began executing on a new business model that aimed to expand from grocery delivery into tech products for retail partners, as Coins2Day senior writer Maria Aspan explored in a 2021 profile. As might be expected for a former Facebook exec, she built an ads business that allows brands to advertise to shoppers within the app.
While Simo prepped the business for an IPO, the stock market grew more volatile. So the listing, expected for 2022, was delayed. Meanwhile, the company kept slashing its valuation from a high of $39 billion down to $10 billion.
On Friday, the company finally filed for its long-awaited IPO. In its filing, Instacart revealed it earned $2.5 billion in revenue and $428 million in profit last year. It referenced its past rapid growth as a risk factor—warning investors that such growth may not continue. And Instacart’s core grocery delivery business is showing signs of slowing growth, making Simo’s expanded business model more critical.
Instacart’s IPO will be closely watched by other startups; it’s one of few tech companies to test the waters and resume public listings after months of minimal listing activity. While Simo isn’t Instacart’s founder, with a few years as CEO under her belt she will be the one to shepherd Instacart to the Nasdaq bell.
Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
@_emmahinchliffe
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Offensive play. After Spain won the Women's World Cup, Spain's soccer federation president Luis Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso without her consent. He announced, and then reversed, plans to resign. Players have protested. FIFA announced he would be suspended. The situation is set to come to a head today in an emergency meeting of the country's soccer federation. Reuters
- Female football fund. Sports entrepreneur Victoire Cogevina Reynal has put aside $100 million to invest in women’s sports franchises in Europe and South America. Mercury 13, the group led by Reynal and boasting a number of other famous female footballers, is set to acquire England’s Lewes FC first. ESPN
- WED turns 50. The 50th anniversary of Women’s Equality Day was celebrated on Saturday, serving as an important reminder of the relationship between democracy and feminism. The federally recognized day was started in the 1970s as a chance to reflect on women’s suffrage and the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Time
- Park project. Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott, two of the world’s richest women, are teaming up to revitalize a section of Seattle. The $45 million project to connect the city’s Olympic Sculpture Park and Waterfront Park was spearheaded by French Gates, who enlisted Scott because of their mutual appreciation of public parks. Seattle Times
- Parade's new route. Cami Téllez, cofounder and CEO of Parade, will not remain at the company after an acquisition by intimates brand Ariela & Associates. Though it’s not clear why Téllez is exiting the company, she told members of her team that it was her "greatest wish to see this brand swell to new heights.” Inc.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: StubHub hired Connie James as chief financial officer.
ON MY RADAR
Ons Jabeur is tennis’s next great champion Glamour
Finally, the lesbian incel comedy America has been waiting for Vulture
How NASA chose its first woman in space Bloomberg
PARTING WORDS
"It’s hard to think of yourself as someone that’s important enough to save your junk."
—Director Sofia Coppola on the process behind her new scrapbook-like book Sofia Coppola Archive
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