Success often follows failure, but few embody this truth like Apoorva Mehta, billionaire entrepreneur, whose journey from a small town in India to Silicon Valley is nothing short of extraordinary. As the visionary founder of Instacart and Cloud Health Systems, Mehta has reshaped two massive industries—grocery delivery and digital health—through persistence, passion, and a relentless drive to solve real problems.
From Jodhpur to Silicon Valley: Humble Beginnings
Born in 1986 in Jodhpur, India, Apoorva Mehta’s early life was marked by constant movement. His family relocated to Libya, where his father worked for an electrical transmission company. At age 14, Mehta’s journey took him to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada—a place vastly different from his birthplace, but one that laid the foundation for his future success.
Curious and driven, Apoorva Mehta pursued electrical engineering at the University of Waterloo, one of Canada’s top technical institutions. He was fascinated by the way systems work, a trait that would later help him revolutionize online grocery shopping.
The Foundation Years of Apoorva Mehta: Engineering Meets Entrepreneurship
Mehta’s early career reads like a checklist of modern tech giants. He started as a design engineer at Blackberry and Qualcomm, and then moved on to Amazon in 2008, where he worked as a supply chain engineer. It was here, amidst the complexities of fulfillment systems, that he began to truly understand how products moved from warehouses to doorsteps.
But the spark of entrepreneurship burned bright within him. In 2010, he left his stable job at Amazon and moved to San Francisco, driven by a desire not just to build a company—but to solve meaningful problems.
The Road to Instacart: 20 Failures and One Big Win
The story of Apoorva Mehta, billionaire entrepreneur, could easily have ended in frustration. Between 2010 and 2012, he launched 20 different startups, from an ad platform for gaming companies to a social network for lawyers. Every single one failed. But Mehta wasn’t discouraged.
His turning point came from a personal struggle—grocery shopping without a car. In the cold Canadian winters, he had often taken long bus rides just to buy food. Even in tech-savvy San Francisco, grocery delivery was clunky and inefficient. The idea struck: build a fast, reliable app that delivers groceries to your door.
The Birth of Instacart: Passion Meets Timing
At just 26, Apoorva Mehta began building the prototype for Instacart, vowing not to return to a grocery store until his app worked. He became his own first user, placing orders and delivering them to himself. When he missed the Y Combinator application deadline, he didn’t give up. Instead, he used the app to send a six-pack of beer to one of the partners, and that bold move landed him a spot in the 2012 summer batch.
With help from Y Combinator and co-founders Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo, Instacart quickly gained traction. The startup raised $2.3 million in early funding and soon transformed into a major player in e-commerce.
By 2020, with the pandemic forcing millions indoors, Instacart exploded in popularity, seeing a 500% increase in order volume. In June of that year, a new funding round valued the company at $13.7 billion, and Mehta officially became a billionaire, owning a 10% stake.
A Legacy of Leadership and a New Vision
In July 2021, Apoorva Mehta stepped down as CEO, becoming executive chairman before exiting the company completely in September 2023. But his journey was far from over. He shifted his attention to another broken system—healthcare.
In 2022, Apoorva Mehta launched Cloud Health Systems, a startup aiming to transform medical consultation through technology. The venture raised $30 million in seed funding, indicating strong confidence in his new mission. As always, Mehta wasn’t just building a company—he was solving a deeply personal problem with scalable impact.
Recognition and Impact
Throughout his career, Apoorva Mehta has been recognized globally. He was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2013 and appeared on the TIME 100 Next list in 2021. But beyond the awards and headlines, his story resonates because it’s rooted in failure, humility, and a desire to make life easier for everyday people.
As he once shared at a Y Combinator talk:
“The reason to start a company should never be to start a company. The reason to start a company should be to solve a problem that you truly, truly care about.”
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