Instacart Appoints Former Google Execs as VPs of Engineering
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - After raising $600 million in its last financing round, Instacart is expanding its exec team in the wake of a national expansion of Instacart Pickup—and it’s picking up some talent of its own from Google. TechCrunch reported that Varouj Chitilian will be Instacart’s first VP of Engineering; Dave Sobota its first VP of Corporate Development.
Chitilian worked at Google for 12 years, where he was a Director of Engineering. He worked on consumer payments services like Google Pay, as well as advertising services.
Sobota held a corporate development role at Google, where he worked for 13 years. He has a background as an M&A lawyer.
In addition to these new hires, the company announced just last week that Instacart Pickup, a new grocery click-and-collect service, would be rolling out nationally. This new service gives consumers the convenience of both delivery and pickup options. Instacart noted in a press release that it will be working with existing retail partners—as well as new ones—to add the Instacart Pickup service over the coming months and through 2019.
"We want to make grocery shopping effortless by helping our customers get the groceries they need from the retailers they love. Our customers want choice and we're excited to now offer the pickup option they've been asking for," said Nilam Ganenthiran, Chief Business Officer at Instacart. "In our house, sometimes the ritual of going to the grocery store is inspiring and helps us meal plan for the week. Other times, we're busy and can't get to the store, so delivery makes life easier for us. For families that are out and about and running errands, a pickup solution might be a better fit for their family rhythm. I'm excited to work with our existing retail partners to now offer Instacart Pickup and look forward to adding more beloved grocers over the coming months and expanding this service to even more families."
Will these new hires and new grocery service put Instacart on top of the e-tail grocery game? AndNowUKnow will continue to report.
