• From the Wall Street Journal:
"Instacart is targeting a valuation of roughly $8.6 billion to $9.3 billion in its imminent IPO, a fraction of what the grocery-delivery company was previously worth, in the latest sign of diminished investor enthusiasm for private growth companies.
"Instacart is set to start marketing its long-anticipated initial public offering to investors as early as Monday, and plans to disclose the expected valuation range then, according to people familiar with the matter. The San Francisco company’s plans could still change and it is possible the range could move around as the company receives feedback during the roadshow.
"The shares are expected to begin trading the following week on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker CART.
"The expected valuation, on a fully diluted basis, is a far cry from the roughly $39 billion Instacart garnered in a fundraising round in 2021, the year it started laying the groundwork for a public listing. Since then, valuations of high-growth startups have fallen as interest rates rose, making riskier investments less attractive."
• The Seattle Times writes about "Disaster Relief by Amazon, a group of Amazon employees tasked with using the company’s resources to help communities after disasters strike. Those resources range from unused warehouse space to an air transportation system to cloud computing power in order to gather insights about the scene on the ground. When disaster hits, the team of two swells to include employees from Amazon’s other departments, like Amazon Web Services and Amazon Air."
According to the story, "Seattle-based Amazon has invested tens of millions of dollars in its disaster-relief program since its launch six years ago. It has donated 23 million items to victims of 113 natural disasters.
"The team has worked in disaster-stricken locations across the U.S. and the world, from California, Mississippi and Tennessee to Pakistan, Indonesia and Ukraine. They helped residents of Maui after deadly wildfires devastated the island last month. They went east of Seattle as wildfires consumed parts of Spokane County earlier this summer."
