Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta. Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch, under Creative Commons license

According to a report from The Information, grocery delivery company Instacart has initiated discussions to raise several hundred million dollars from both existing and new investors, after an outsized surge in demand for grocery delivery services due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to The Information, the new financing could value Instacart at between $12 billion to $14 billion, up from a $7.6 billion valuation when the company last raised funding in 2018.

Instacart looking to tap additional funding doesn’t seem very much surprising given the company has been effectively overwhelmed by the enormous demand for its services. People across the U.S. have taken to grocery delivery apps to get hold of essential groceries amid advised social distancing efforts coupled with some movement restrictions. Such is the case that Instacart has nearly tripled the number of its shoppers from 180,000 at the beginning of this year to more than 500,000 currently. The company’s CEO, Apoorva Mehta, has told Bloomberg that it’s on track to deliver $35 billion worth of groceries this year. Instacart is also said to have recorded its first-ever monthly profit in April but amid significant struggles to keep up with demand. Raising new funding to help fund a rapid expansion seems very much plausible for Instacart, which last raised funding two years ago.

Altogether, Instacart has already raised slightly short of $2 billion in total funding since its inception. Alongside an army of shoppers, The company has some 1,200 employees who help run its technical and administrative operations.