(Bloomberg) -- Instacart named an engineering leader from delivery competitor Uber Technologies Inc. as its new chief technology officer, a position that has been vacant for eight months.
Anirban Kundu, head of engineering for Uber’s delivery business, will join Instacart on Oct. 28, according to a company spokesperson. At Uber, Kundu built on the engineering work he led at Postmates — acquired by Uber in 2020 — to spearhead the consumer-facing Uber Eats service, as well as advertising on the delivery platform. He had worked closely with Instacart as part of the restaurant delivery partnership the two companies announced in May.
“His deep understanding of multisided marketplaces like ours and proven track record of building scaled technical systems that can support long-term growth make him the perfect person to drive our technical vision forward,” Instacart said in a statement.
Kundu’s hiring fills a vacancy created in February, when Instacart announced that it was laying off 7% of its workforce and that three C-suite executives, including the CTO and chief operating officer, were departing. The restructuring was meant to realign its focus on higher-margin areas such as advertising and e-commerce software for grocery stores, the company said at the time.
Those business segments now bring in about 30% of Instacart’s revenue and in the past year grew faster than its core delivery business, which relies on independent contractors to go to supermarkets, drug stores and other retailers to fulfill customers’ online orders.
In August, Instacart provided a better-than-expected forecast for third-quarter order value and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, thanks to continued strength in large-basket grocery orders.
But Wall Street analysts disagree on their recommendation for the company’s shares. The stock has 15 hold ratings, 14 buys and 1 sell, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shares were down as much as 3.4% on Wednesday after Jefferies started coverage of the company with a “hold” recommendation, citing a “murky profit outlook.”
Yet Jefferies acknowledges the opportunities there as the company “has exposure to a massive $1.3 trillion end-market that is still early in its shift to digital.” The stock has risen 80% so far this year after hitting an all-time high last week.
Chief Executive Officer Fidji Simo said in an interview with Bloomberg News last month that the company’s technical integration with grocery retailers is a “much better predictor of growth and where we’re headed in the future” than simply comparing the number of retailers exclusively on Instacart’s platform to those on its competitors’ sites.
“I’ve long admired Instacart’s wide-ranging efforts to serve the grocery industry and bring it into the digital era,” Kundu said in a statement. “I’m excited to work with Instacart’s talented, fast-paced team and help the company realize its vision of powering every grocery transaction, online and in stores.”
Kundu isn’t the only Uber executive who’s joined Instacart’s leadership in recent months. In May, Instacart elevated former Uber veteran Emily Reuter to the role of chief financial officer after her predecessor retired.
Prior to Postmates and Uber, Kundu was CTO at Evernote and before that led engineering teams at companies including GoDaddy, Shazam and Yahoo.
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