Who is Apoorva Mehta? All about the Indian-origin entrepreneur who left Amazon to build Instacart, and became a billionaire

Apoorva Mehta, an Indian-origin entrepreneur, has made headlines as one of the most successful corporate figures of our time. The man behind the popular American grocery delivery and pick-up service, Instacart, Mehta counts himself among the ranks of billionaires after quitting his job at Amazon.

Mehta was born and raised in India. His inherent interest in technology saw him graduate with a degree in engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada. His career kick-started with a job at Blackberry before moving on to work with tech giants like Qualcomm and Amazon. But the conventional 9-to-5 grind wasn't fulfilling enough for Mehta, leading to the initiation of his entrepreneurial journey.

At Amazon, Mehta worked as a supply chain engineer. However, he left the e-commerce behemoth with the dream of starting something of his own. After reportedly trying out 20 startup ideas, his moment of epiphany came while grocery shopping. He noticed the tedium and effort people put into grocery shopping and realized a massive market potential in delivering groceries right to customers' doorsteps. This was the genesis of Instacart, founded in 2012.

The IPO marked the end of Apoorva Mehta's 11-year association with Instacart. He launched Instacart in 2012 after several other failed startups. It was while staring at his own empty refrigerator that Mehta was struck with inspiration for Instacart, the American company that today delivers groceries in more than 14,000 US cities.

“The reason why I quit my job at Amazon was because I wanted to become an entrepreneur,” Mehta said. “I didn’t know what my idea was going to be,” he added while speaking about his journey to CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday.

Mehta's failed enterprises varied from a social media platform for lawyers to a gaming advertising firm. "Unfortunately, all of them failed," he confessed.

“More than a decade ago, I was sitting in my apartment in San Francisco bemoaning the fact that the only thing I had in my refrigerator was hot sauce,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post shared a day ago.

“My empty refrigerator was an ongoing problem - and a source of inspiration. It was 2012 and I could shop for everything online except groceries. That was a lightbulb moment for me, and I got started coding the first version of the Instacart App,” he said.

Instacart raised $2.3 million in venture capital fundraising in just a few months. Since then, there has been no going back for this American delivery startup, which now has big retail partners such as Aldi, Costco, and Kroger.

On September 18, Instacart, incorporated as Maplebear Inc., priced its first public offering at $30 per share. When the shares first traded in New York on September 19, they soared by more than 40 per cent before closing at $33.70. According to CNBC, the company's overall valuation is $9.9 billion.