Instacart, the online grocery delivery giant, made a splash in its Nasdaq trading debut on Tuesday, with shares soaring by a remarkable 43%. While the initial surge was tempered in later trading, the company’s stock closed the day with a substantial gain of just over 12%. This successful debut marks the second impressive initial public offering (IPO) in the past week, coming on the heels of the sale of British microchip designer Arm.

The trading day began with Instacart’s shares hitting the market at $30 and eventually settling at a closing price of $34.23. This valuation places the company at approximately $11 billion, a noteworthy achievement for the online grocery delivery leader. Notably, this valuation is approximately half of what investors had attributed to the company in March of the preceding year.

Instacart’s core business revolves around dispatching couriers to grocery stores to fulfill orders and deliver them to customers’ doorsteps. However, in recent years, the company has diversified its services to encompass advertising and technology solutions, including artificial intelligence operations.

Company executives framed this IPO as an opportunity to participate in a transformative phase in the grocery industry, which has lagged in adopting technologies that cater to evolving consumer preferences. Although US consumers are increasingly turning to online grocery shopping compared to pre-pandemic levels, the frequency of these orders has slightly declined. Instacart, after years of losses, has only recently begun to turn a profit and faces stiff competition from industry players such as Uber and DoorDash.

Backing Instacart’s share offering are major investors, including PepsiCo, Norway’s Norges Bank, and Sequoia Capital, underlining the confidence in the company’s potential for growth.

One of the notable beneficiaries of this IPO is Apoorva Mehta, who co-founded Instacart in 2012 and served as its CEO until 2021. Mehta’s 10% stake in the company is now valued at an impressive $1.3 billion.

At present, Instacart boasts a workforce of over 3,000 employees and a vast network of approximately 600,000 independent contractors, referred to as “shoppers,” responsible for order fulfillment. The company has also announced plans to reward shoppers with bonuses, including a $20,000 bonus for those who have completed at least 15,000 orders and additional incentives for those who have achieved 5,000 deliveries.