Instacart is preparing for battle as Amazon moves further into its turf of delivering groceries.
The future of the highly valued San Francisco startup was thrown into limbo Friday, when Amazon said it would buy Instacart partner Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.
Whole Foods was Instacart's first national partner, and Bloomberg reports that the high-end grocery store invested more than $30 million in Instacart. The two businesses signed a five-year contract last year, according to Bloomberg, which gave Instacart exclusive rights to deliver perishables from the store.
Instacart wasted little time in saying it is not backing down from its competition with Amazon.
"From the beginning, we've been committed to helping grocers compete online," the company said in a statement. "That's more important than ever given Amazon just declared war on every supermarket and corner store in America."
Besides, the statement said, Whole Foods brings in less than 10 percent of the startup's revenue, and that is "declining" as Instacart adds more clients. The company delivers from about 160 retailers.
Amazon has a grocery delivery service, and some think that could make Instacart irrelevant in the Whole Foods operation. But Instacart has had widespread success in attracting millennial shoppers, something Amazon sometimes struggled to do with its online-only Fresh delivery.
Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods is expected to close by the end of the year.
In the meantime, Instacart signed expanded partnership deals with major grocers Publix and Wegmans.
