Instacart acquires AI pricing platform Eversight

Instacart announced Thursday its acquisition of Eversight, an AI company that helps consumer packaged goods brands and retailers determine pricing and promotions.

Eversight’s AI allows consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands and retailers to continuously test pricing and promotions at scale, streamlining what has traditionally been a time-consuming process. The tech gives CPG brands real-time insights into the promotions that could resonate with customers. For retailers, Eversight helps companies use their physical and digital storefronts to run ongoing individualized micro-price-point experiments at scale.

Americans are currently grappling with decades-high inflation that’s led some shoppers to cut items from their grocery baskets. Instacart is hoping the deal will create a flywheel effect, where goods are priced at the “sweet spot” that drives sales and growth for CPG brands and retailers, while also leading to better promotions and pricing for customers.

“By joining Instacart, this technology can be scaled across online and offline pricing to help make buying groceries more affordable for everyone while also driving more value for CPGs and retailers,” Eversight cofounder David Moran said in a statement. (Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.)

Instacart has been leaning in to price-saving options, offering users lower-cost scheduled delivery and the ability to pick up their own orders. “Our job is to really connect [customers] with all of the options that they have, to make grocery shopping more affordable,” Instacart CEO Fidji Simo told Fast Company in an interview last week.

The acquisition comes as Instacart prepares for its market debut. The company confidentially filed to go public earlier this year, and is reportedly planning to hit the market before 2023. Instacart said Thursday it recorded all-time highs in orders, gross transaction volume, revenue, ad revenue, and gross profit in 2021, and has continued that momentum into 2022.