• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, March 2, 2021

Few services benefited more from the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020 than online grocery shopping platform Instacart, and it is parlaying its momentum with a new $265 million financing round that will help accelerate its advertising and marketing services this year.

“This past year ushered in a new normal, changing the way people shop for groceries and goods,” CFO Nick Giovanni said in a statement announcing the new round, which gives the service a $39 billion market valuation -- and it has only just barely scratched a category representing $1.3 trillion in North American consumer spending.

The new round, which was led by its existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, and T. Rowe Price Associates, will be used to accelerate Instacart Advertising aimed at consumer packaged goods marketers, as well as Instacart Marketplace targeting retailer promotion spending, as well as increasing its overall corporate headcount by 50% during 2021.

While Instacart did not disclose the number of new users added during the pandemic, it said it increased the number of new retailers participating in its platform by 200, boosting the number of new store locations it covers by more than 15,000.