(Bloomberg) — Grocery delivery giant Instacart Inc. has hired another Facebook Inc. veteran as it shakes up its executive ranks and adds more women to its C-suite ahead of a highly anticipated initial public offering.
Carolyn Everson, 49, will serve as president and oversee a wide range of Instacart’s operations including retail, advertising, business development, human resources, legal and partnerships, the company said in a statement. She will begin her new role on Sept. 7.
Everson, who announced her departure from Facebook in a June 9 post, was most recently vice president of global marketing solutions at the social media giant and played a key role in managing relationships with advertisers and agencies. Prior to Facebook, Everson led Microsoft Corp.’s advertising business across different platforms including search engine Bing, MSN, Windows Live, mobile and gaming.
Everson’s appointment comes as Instacart’s new chief executive officer, Fidji Simo, also a Facebook veteran, prepares to take the company public. With Everson’s arrival, more than half of the San Francisco-based company’s executive leadership roles will be held by women.
Women make up about 80% of Instacart’s customers and 70% of its gig workers. “I think it’s critical to have a leadership team that really represents the people you’re trying to serve,” Simo said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Emily Chang.
After Walmart Inc., the company is now the second-largest grocery delivery and pickup company in the U.S., with 45% of the market as of June, according to Bloomberg Second Measure data. “We assume that 25% of groceries over the next five years is going to move online,” Simo said. Instacart recently teamed up with e-commerce technology startup Fabric to equip fulfillment centers with robots, a move Simo believes will help retail partners move business online more profitably.
As new convenience and grocery delivery startups proliferate, Instacart is keeping its options open, Simo said, adding that Instacart is “definitely” looking for potential acquisitions that would complement the company.
The current president, Nilam Ganenthiran, will transition into a new senior leadership role as strategic adviser to Simo.
Instacart doubled its valuation to $39 billion in a March funding round where it raised $265 million from investors.
Simo said the company is profitable, in “big part” because of ads. Instacart’s roster of advertising veterans should help the company grow its ad business further, which it views as “a very big driver of growth” that should increase as a percentage of revenue and profit, she said.
“The fact that we have such a strong ad business, growing triple digits year-over-year is going to allow us to have the profitability we need to continue reinvesting in the business and continue to grow,” she said. Instacart boosted the number of advertisers on the platform by 500% last year.
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