Goldman Banker Nick Giovanni to Join Instacart as CFO Ahead of IPO

Lizette Chapman

09 Jan 2021, 01:50 AM IST

(Bloomberg) -- Nick Giovanni, who oversaw some of the biggest technology deals in recent years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is joining the grocery delivery company Instacart Inc. ahead of an initial public offering expected this year.

Giovanni served as head of the global technology, media and telecom group at Goldman Sachs, where he helped take Airbnb Inc., DoorDash Inc. and Twitter Inc. public. He’ll likely soon do the same for Instacart as chief financial officer.

The current CFO, Sagar Sanghvi, will step down at the end of the month, Instacart said in a statement Thursday. Sanghvi, previously an investor at KKR & Co., will take time off before returning to investing, the company said. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Giovanni has been working with Instacart management for about five years, the company said. Instacart picked Goldman Sachs to lead an IPO targeting a valuation of about $30 billion, Reuters reported in November. It would be the latest in a string of high-flying startups going public, raising record sums last year. An Instacart spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.

Instacart has grown at a blistering speed during the coronavirus pandemic. In May, the company said it was set to process more than $35 billion in grocery sales for 2020. The spokeswoman declined to update the figure. In the last year, Instacart more than doubled the number of its workers and expanded into delivery of electronics, office supplies, pharmaceuticals and other items. It works with Best Buy, BevMo, CVS, Staples and Sephora, with service available to at least seven out of 10 households in the U.S. and Canada.

Investors put $200 million into Instacart in October, raising its valuation to $17.7 billion. Executives said at the time they would use the cash to develop the website, advertising business and services for retail stores.

Giovanni brings expertise in deals of all kinds. Along with IPOs and direct stock listings, Giovanni advised on the sale of Slack Technologies Inc. to Salesforce.com Inc., as well as Credit Karma to Intuit Inc. He served on multiple Goldman Sachs investment banking investment banking committees. He joins Instacart on Jan. 27.