Apoorva Mehta
Founder of Instacart and Cloud Health Systems
Apoorva Mehta founded Instacart, the grocery delivery and pickup marketplace, in 2012 with Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo, and took it through Y Combinator's Summer 2012 batch. He ran it as CEO until Fidji Simo took over in August 2021, then served as executive chairman until he left the board at Instacart's Nasdaq debut in September 2023. In 2022 he started Cloud Health Systems, a health services company.
- Grocery delivery
Instacart
Y Combinator
- Health care
- Founded
- Instacart, 2012 (YC Summer 2012)1
- Left Instacart
- Sept 19, 2023, at its Nasdaq debut6
- Earlier jobs
- BlackBerry, Qualcomm and Amazon2
- Based in
- San Francisco, California, United States3
Experience
- Founder2022
Raised US$30 million in November 2022 from investors including Thrive Capital and Greenoaks Capital, at a reported US$200 million valuation, to offer medical consultation and other health services.7
- Executive ChairmanJul 2021 – Sep 2023
Moved from CEO to executive chairman in 2021. As the company announced in July 2022, he would leave the board once Instacart became a public company.4
- Founder and CEOJun 2012 – Jul 2021
Co-founded Instacart with Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo and took it through Y Combinator's Summer 2012 batch.1
- Software Development Engineer, Fulfillment Optimization2008 – 2010
Worked on Amazon's fulfillment engine, built to get packages to customers quickly and efficiently, in the Seattle area.3
Education
BASc, Electrical Engineering12
Recognition
Award · TIME11
Award · Fortune10
Milestones
- Finished his electrical engineering studies at the University of Waterloo12
- Joined Amazon as a software engineer on fulfillment optimization3
- Left Amazon to start his own company; he says he built about 20 products over two years, all of which failed, before Instacart8
- Founded Instacart with Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo; the company joined Y Combinator's Summer 2012 batch1
- Instacart had raised $2.5 million from Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures and others, and worked with about 200 personal shoppers in the Bay Area9
- Instacart worked with about 4,000 personal shoppers in 18 metro areas10
- Instacart named Fidji Simo CEO from Aug 2, 2021; Mehta became executive chairman5
- Instacart announced he would leave its board once it became a public company4
- Cloud Health Systems raised US$30 million7
- Left Instacart's board on Sept 19 as the company debuted on the Nasdaq; Fidji Simo became chair6