Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, two of Silicon Valley’s most high-profile venture firms, are poised to take a massive hit on their last investment in grocery delivery company Instacart, a deal that closed in 2021 as tech stocks were soaring.
In its latest IPO prospectus update, filed on Friday, Instacart said it plans to sell shares at $28 to $30 a piece, valuing the company at around $10 billion at the top of the range.
That’s more than 75% below where Sequoia and Andreessen invested in early 2021. At that time, Instacart sold shares at $125 a piece for a $39 billion valuation. The delivery economy was booming because of Covid shutdowns, and Instacart’s services were seeing record demand.
“This past year ushered in a new normal, changing the way people shop for groceries and goods,” Instacart finance chief Nick Giovanni said in a press release at the time.
In the more than two years since then, Instacart and its investors have learned that growth during that period was anything but normal. Instacart was closing out a quarter in which revenue surged 200%. In the quarter before, sales jumped almost sevenfold. Instacart said it was preparing to increase headcount by 50% and bolster investment in advertising.
Sequoia’s Mike Moritz, who led his firm’s investment and recently announced his departure after 38 years, said in the same press release that Instacart was “fulfilling its role as a vital service for consumers, a reliable partner for retailers and an effective platform for advertisers.” Fidelity, T. Rowe Price and D1 Capital Partners also participated in that financing round.
Then the economy reopened, inflation spiked and the Federal Reserved started boosting interest rates, which hovered near zero throughout Covid. Consumers started shopping again in person on tightened budgets, and with capital costs jumping, investors began demanding that cash-burning companies find a path to profitability. Last year, the Nasdaq suffered its steepest drop since the 2008 financial crisis.
It’s also true that venture firms haven’t seen any real returns from IPOs since before the 2022 market collapse. The dearth of exits is particularly stark because VCs invested records amounts of capital in 2020 and 2021, including deals at high valuations in areas like crypto and fintech.
Even with the changing market conditions, Instacart has continued to grow but at a dramatically slower pace. Revenue increased 15% in the latest quarter from the year prior, and operating expenses have come down over that time, allowing the company to turn profitable.
From a valuation perspective, the bigger issue is that Instacart raised the $39 billion round during a record stretch of tech IPOs, and just a couple of months after fellow sharing-economy companies Airbnb and DoorDash had blockbuster offerings.
There hasn’t been a notable venture-backed tech IPO in the U.S. since late 2021, and Instacart and Klaviyo are the only two that have publicly filed recently. Car-sharing service Turo is also on file, but its initial prospectus came out in early 2022.
Fortunately for Sequoia and Andreessen, they began investing in Instacart when the company was in its early days and the stock price was much lower than it is today. Assuming the stock price holds up, there’s still considerable money to be made for limited partners. Because of the lock-up period, the firms can’t begin selling shares until 180 days after the offering.
Sequoia is the largest investor in Instacart, with a 15% stake on a fully diluted basis. The 400,000 shares it purchased in 2021 are a small sliver of the 51.2 million shares it owns. In total, the firm has invested about $300 million for a stake that would be worth over $1.5 billion at the top of the range.
Sequoia led Instacart’s $8.5 million Series A round in 2013, when the price was just 24 cents a share, according to the prospectus. Andreessen led the next round at $2.98, and Sequoia participated. Both firms were in the Series C at $13.31 a share and the Series D at $18.52.
Because Andreessen’s total ownership is below 5%, its full stake isn’t disclosed in the prospectus.
Representatives from Sequoia and Andreessen declined to comment.
Not until 2020 did Instacart’s share price climb to around where it is today, in a $200 million round led by Valiant Peregrine Fund and D1. Neither Sequoia nor Andreessen participated in that round.
Even if Instacart’s IPO can’t lift its valuation anywhere near its Covid-era peak, it’s likely that Sequoia, Andreessen and other venture firms are hoping it helps lift public investor enthusiasm for new tech stocks. Arm, which was taken private by SoftBank in 2016, reentered the public market on Thursday and jumped 25% in its debut.
Apple’s latest iPhone models are shown on display at its Regent Street, London store on the launch day of the iPhone 17.
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
Apple will hit a record level of iPhone shipments this year driven by its latest models and a resurgence in its key market of China, research firm IDC has forecast.
The company will ship 247.4 million iPhones in 2025, up just over 6% year-on-year, IDC forecast in a report on Tuesday. That’s more than the 236 million it sold in 2021, when the iPhone 13 was released.
Apple’s predicted surge is “thanks to the phenomenal success of its latest iPhone 17 series,” Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, said in a statement, adding that in China, “massive demand for iPhone 17 has significantly accelerated Apple’s performance.”
Shipments are a term used by analysts to refer to the number of devices sent by a vendor to its sales channels like e-commerce partners or stores. They do not directly equate to sales but indicate the demand expected by a company for their products.
When it launched in September, investors saw the iPhone 17 series as a key set of devices for Apple, which was facing increased competition in China and questions about its artificial intelligence strategy, as Android rivals were powering on.
Apple’s shipments are expected to jump 17% year-on-year in China in the fourth quarter, IDC said, leading the research firm to forecast 3% growth in the market this year versus a previous projection of a 1% decline.
IDC’s report follows on from Counterpoint Research last week which forecast Apple to ship more smartphones than Samsung in 2025 for the first time in 14 years.
Bloomberg reported last month that Apple could delay the release of the base model of its next device, the iPhone 18, until 2027, which would break its regular cycle of releasing all of its phones in fall each year. IDC said this could mean Apple’s shipments may drop by 4.2% next year.
Anthropic, the AI startup behind the popular Claude chatbot, is in early talks to launch one of the largest initial public offerings as early as next year, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
For the potential IPO, Anthropic has engaged law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which has previously worked on high-profile tech IPOs such as Google, LinkedIn and Lyft, the FT said, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
The start-up, led by chief executive Dario Amodei, was also pursuing a private funding round that could value it above $300 billion, including a $15 billion combined commitment from Microsoft and Nvidia, per the report.
It added that Anthropic has also discussed a potential IPO with major investment banks, but that sources characterized the discussions as preliminary and informal.
If true, the news could position Anthropic in a race to market with rival ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, which is also reportedly laying the groundwork for a public offering. The potential listings would also test investors’ appetite for loss-making AI startups amid growing fears of a so-called AI bubble.
However, an Anthropic spokesperson told the FT: “It’s fairly standard practice for companies operating at our scale and revenue level to effectively operate as if they are publicly traded companies,” adding that no decisions have been made on timing or whether to go public.
CNBC was unable to reach Anthropic and Wilson Sonsini, which has advised Anthropic for a few years, for comment.
According to one of the FT’s sources, Anthropic has been working through internal preparations for a potential listing, though details were not provided.
CNBC also reported last month that Anthropic was recently valued to the range of $350 billion after receiving investments of up to $5 billion from Microsoft and $10 billion from Nvidia.
According to the FT report, investors in the company are enthusiastic about Anthropic’s potential IPO, which could see it “seize the initiative” from OpenAI.
While OpenAI has been rumoured to be considering an IPO, its chief financial officer recently said the company is not pursuing a near-term listing, even as it closed a $6.6 billion share sale at a $500 billion valuation in October.
CrowdStrike on Tuesday evening reported better-than-expected fiscal 2026 third-quarter results and forward guidance. The numbers, however, were not enough to power shares higher, given their roughly 24% advance since the cybersecurity company’s fiscal second-quarter print back in late August. That said, the latest beat and raise should help solidify recent stock gains and set the stage for further upside next year. Revenue in fiscal Q3 increased 22% year over year to $1.23 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion, compiled by market data provider LSEG. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) increased to 96 cents in the three months ending Oct. 31, beating the 94-cent estimate, according to LSEG. Why we own it Cybersecurity is a must-have for companies in the digital age. Led by co-founder and CEO George Kurtz, CrowdStrike is one of the best there is, along with fellow Club name Palo Alto Networks . The company specializes in endpoint protection through its AI-native platform called Falcon. Competitors: Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet , SentinelOne , Microsoft Portfolio weighting: 3.33% Most recent buy: March 10, 2025 Initiation date: Oct. 16, 2024 Bottom Line The October quarter was an encore performance from CrowdStrike — delivering better-than-expected results across the board, with record-high operating cash flow, adjusted operating income, EPS, free cash flow, and net new annual recurring revenue. The Falcon Flex subscription model is clearly helping to drive more business, with annual recurring revenue (ARR) tied to these accounts surging more than 200% versus the year-ago period. Falcon Flex allows customers to quickly deploy additional protection as needed, without all the red tape of going through the often-lengthy procurement process. Artificial intelligence benefits CrowdStrike in two ways: by increasing attack vectors in its customers’ digital infrastructure, resulting in more demand, and by strengthening CrowdStrike’s ability to protect customers against these attacks, resulting in more pricing power and cross-selling. As CEO George Kurtz said on the post-earnings conference call, “Businesses every day are having jarring lightbulb moments, witnessing AI-powered adversarial tradecraft firsthand. … Now, just as anyone can use AI to vibe code and become a software engineer, anyone can also now vibe hack, becoming a sophisticated adversary with AI.” He added that CrowdStrike is mission-critical. “No matter how the market swings, geopolitical tensions evolve, or what technologies are in vogue, our digital society mandates cybersecurity as a necessity, and now, more than ever, synonymous with that, CrowdStrike is a necessity.” CRWD YTD mountain CrowdStrike YTD This speaks to the nature of demand for CrowdStrike and other cybersecurity companies, such as fellow Club name Palo Alto Networks , and what these companies can provide in an all-encompassing, platform approach to digital protection. With attacks becoming more sophisticated and more frequent, companies can no longer afford to have a fragmented solution to cybersecurity. Kurtz said, “Cybersecurity in the agentic era demands a single platform. The criticality in being able to operate with agility, efficacy, and speed to stop breaches is having the data that controls and the actions in a single platform, not multiple platforms. Because when you have multiple platforms, by definition, you don’t have a platform. Tap switching and contact switching cost time. Data stitching doesn’t scale. These are the seams and cracks where adversaries thrive.” Kurtz’s comment about the “agentic era” refers to digital AI agents that can perform complex tasks and problem-solve with little to no human oversight. The proliferation of AI agents exponentially increases the ways hackers can breach systems. In mid-September, at CrowdStrike’s Fal.Con industry conference , the CEO described the rise of agentic AI as a “greater than 100x opportunity for CrowdStrike.” Given the fiscal third-quarter results, strong outlook, and our longer-term view that cybersecurity is a secular growth industry, now benefiting from the need to defend against AI-equipped hackers, using AI protection tools, we’re reiterating our 1 rating and increasing our CrowdStrike price target to $550 per share from $520. While falling 3% in after-hours trading, CrowdStrike shares were up 51% as of Tuesday’s market close. The stock is the Club’s fourth-best performer of 2025. Quarterly commentary Perhaps the most exciting metric, as it indicates the sustainability of the strength we saw in Tuesday night’s results, is net new annual recurring revenue, which came in at $265 million. That resulted in ARR at the end of the period of $4.92 billion, up 23% year over year and up 5.7% sequentially. Helping to drive that growth was Falcon Flex, with management noting that nearly 30% of ending ARR, or $1.35 billion, came from accounts that have adopted the new pricing model. On the call, Kurtz said the number of customers “reflexing,” or re-signing once their credits are used up, more than doubled sequentially, to more than 200 — with 10 customers “reflexing more than 2x their initial flex subscription.” Given the strong response, management expects the Falcon Flex model to become the company’s licensing standard. Guidance For full-year fiscal 2026, CrowdStrike management raised its outlook at the midpoint. The team now expects to realize revenue of between $4.7966 billion and $4.0866 billion, up from the prior range of between $4.7495 billion and $4.8055 billion. That compares to the LSEG consensus estimate of $4.784 billion. The adjusted earnings outlook was also raised, with the team now targeting an EPS range of $3.70 and $3.72, up from the prior $3.60 to $3.72, and comfortably ahead of the $3.67 estimate from LSEG. For its 2026 fiscal fourth quarter, the current quarter going on right now, management guided for revenue to be between $1.29 billion and $1.3 billion, which is better than the $1.293 billion the Street was looking for at the midpoint, according to LSEG. Adjusted EPS are expected to be between $1.09 and $1.11, better than the $1.08 the Street was looking for. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long CRWD, PANW. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
