InstaShop (Arabic: انستاشوب) is an E-commerce technology company founded in the United Arab Emirates in 2015[1] currently operating in 9 countries. On August 27, 2020, Delivery Hero announced that acquired 100% of InstaShop for $360 million.[2][3]
History
InstaShop was founded in 2015 in Dubai, by John Tsioris[4] and Ioanna Angelidaki[5] as an online grocery delivery service. Twelve months later, the company was nominated by Forbes Middle East as one of "The most promising UAE startups" of the year,[6] having partnered with more than 50 supermarkets and having more than 60,000 users,[7] reason why Souq.com (now Amazon) quickly decided to invest on the project.[7][8]
In the following years the company expanded outside the UAE, starting its operations in Qatar and Bahrain in 2017,[4] to then enter in Egypt and Lebanon in 2018.[9] Also in 2018, Forbes Middle East awarded InstaShop as one of the top 100 startups.[10]
In 2019 InstaShop has gone from being a Grocery Delivery App to delivering multiple types of products, reaching more than 500,000 users during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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On August 2020 InstaShop was acquired by the German holding Delivery Hero based on a valuation of USD 360 million.[13][14][15][16][17]
After the expansions in Oman, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia occurred in 2021, the app - which is currently active in 9 countries - has also gradually expanded its offer (originally focused on grocery), adding other categories such as pharmacies, restaurants, fitness nutrition, electronics, perfumes, stationery, home & living, and cosmetics.
