Meet Apoorva Mehta, the Indian-origin entrepreneur who quit his Amazon job, became a billionaire

Apoorva Mehta is the Indian-Canadian co-founder of Instacart

Apoorva Mehta has every reason to be happy – at 37, he is a billionaire thanks to the grocery delivery startup he founded in 2012. Mehta is the Indian-origin co-founder of Instacart, which he exited with a $1.3 billion fortune following the company’s initial public offering on Tuesday.

The IPO marked the end of Mehta’s 11-year association with Instacart, which he launched 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.

He spoke about his journey to CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday, a day after he sold his 7 lakh shares in Instacart. In 2010, Apoorva Mehta was working as a supply chain engineer for Amazon in Seattle, but wanted to become an entrepreneur. He quit his job and moved to San Francisco, where he tried his hand at a number of startups.

“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.”

Mehta’s failed startups ranged from a social media platform for lawyers to an advertising firm for gaming companies. “Unfortunately, all of them failed,” he said.

Mehta eventually turned to his own (empty) refrigerator for inspiration. He felt that being low on groceries was an “ongoing problem” for him and realised that he could not be the only one facing this issue.

“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.

Within a few months, Instacart managed to secure $2.3 million in venture capital funding. Since then, there has been no looking back for this American delivery company, which today counts major chains like Aldi, Costco and Kroger among its retail partners.

Shares of the San Francisco-based firm closed at $30.10 on Wednesday, after closing 12% higher in their Nasdaq debut on Tuesday, failing to hold onto an intraday gain of as much as 43%. The company's initial public offering had given it a valuation of nearly $9.9 billion.