Last updated on July 11th, 2021 at 03:15 pm
Instacart, a North American leader in online grocery based out of San Francisco, California, has appointed Fidji Simo as CEO, effective Aug. 2, reporting to Instacart’s Board of Directors.
Simo, who joined Instacart’s Board of Directors in January 2021, is a consumer technology industry veteran, having spent more than 15 years leading the operations, strategy and product development for some of the world’s leading businesses.
Apoorva Mehta, Instacart’s founder and current CEO, will transition to executive chairman of the board, and will also report to Instacart’s Board of Directors.
“Seven months ago I invited Fidji to join Instacart’s Board, and since then I’ve been blown away by her capabilities as a leader. Over the last decade at Facebook, she’s been a part of every big moment in the company’s history including helping it grow from 1,000 to nearly 100,000 people and leading the world’s most popular app,” Mehta said.
“Fidji was also at Facebook during its transition from a private company to the public market and understands what it takes to lead and scale a transformational company like Instacart. I believe that with Fidji at the helm we’ll be in an even stronger position to seize the incredible opportunity in front of us. Building Instacart over the last 10 years has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. In my new role as executive chairman, I’ll remain very engaged in the business on a day-to-day basis and will partner with Fidji on long-term and strategic moves that will shape the future of Instacart and our industry for years to come. And, I’ll be able to do so knowing that with Fidji we have the right leader in place who has the experience we need to help make Instacart’s vision a reality.”
“I fell in love with Instacart first as a customer, then as a board member and now I’m honored to join the company as CEO and lead its next growth chapter,” Simo said. “Apoorva founded Instacart 10 years ago with an ambitious vision to bring an entire industry online and over the years he’s built and scaled a phenomenal business that supports the entire grocery ecosystem. Instacart has transformed the way people eat and solved a truly essential need for millions of families like my own – access to food.
“As we think about the future of food, we believe the way people eat and their relationship with food will fundamentally change over the next decade. They’ll expect a more convenient experience, the widest selection of food at their fingertips, faster delivery times, increased personalization and more inspiration. Instacart has an opportunity to deliver all of that for customers, while also becoming an even stronger ally and growth accelerator for retailers and advertisers, and helping create economic opportunities for hundreds of thousands of shoppers. I’m excited to work with the talented teams at Instacart, as well as our retail partners, to reimagine the future of grocery, and create a world where everyone has access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together.”
Before joining Instacart, Simo was the VP and head of the Facebook app, which reaches billions of people every month. Over the last decade at Facebook, Simo oversaw the development and strategy for the Facebook app, including news feed, stories, groups, video, marketplace, gaming, news, dating, ads and more. She was also a core driver of Facebook’s mobile monetization strategy and led the team in charge of architecting Facebook’s advertising business and developing ad formats for mobile. She also made video a critical part of the Facebook experience, from rolling out videos that autoplay in news feed, to building and launching Facebook Live and Watch. Prior to Facebook, Simo joined eBay in 2007 as part of the company’s Strategy team. While at eBay, she helped build out the company’s local commerce and classified-advertising initiatives.
Simo holds a master’s in management from HEC Paris and spent the last year of her program at UCLA Anderson School of Business. She is also the co-founder of Women in Product, a leading non-profit organization dedicated to empowering women in product management, advancing the careers of women in technology and advocating for equal representation in the workplace.
For additional details on today’s news, please visit the Instacart Company Blog.
