Instacart to lay off 250 employees, or about 7% of the company, as part of restructuring

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Instacart on Tuesday announced it would lay off about 250 employees, or roughly 7% of the company, as part of a restructuring. The news came as the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that fell roughly in line with analysts' revenue estimates.

Shares of the company fell 5% in extended trading.

The layoffs are focused in part on middle management and creating a flatter organizational structure, according to Instacart, as well as focusing teams on larger projects, such as advertising efforts on Roku, Google Ads and more.

Three top executives are also departing the company for personal reasons, according to Instacart: Chief Operating Officer Asha Sharma, Chief Technology Officer Varouj Chitilian and chief architect JJ Zhuang. Instacart will only backfill the CTO role.

The company posted fourth-quarter revenue of $803 million, roughly in line with the $804 million that Wall Street expected, according to analyst estimates from LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv.

In September, Instacart went public in one of the first significant venture-backed tech IPOs since December 2021. In its prospectus, the company said it would focus on incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning features into the platform, and that it expected to rely on those features to "drive future growth in our business."

Instacart shoppers and drivers deliver goods in more than 5,500 cities from more than 85,000 grocers and other stores, according to its website. The business took off during the Covid-19 pandemic as consumers avoided public places. But profitability has always been a significant challenge, as it can be with much of the gig economy, due to high costs associated with contractor payouts.

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