Toast and Instacart Announce Strategic Partnership Supporting Restaurants and Retailers

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Key Terms

just-in-time technical

A production and inventory approach in which materials, parts and goods are ordered or produced to arrive exactly when they are needed, rather than being stored in large quantities. It matters to investors because it can lower storage costs and free up cash, improving reported profits and efficiency, but it also raises vulnerability to supply disruptions — like relying on groceries to arrive right when you start cooking, delays can halt operations and hurt earnings.

SKU technical

A SKU (stock keeping unit) is a unique code a company assigns to a specific product variant—think of it as a product’s name tag that distinguishes size, color, model or packaging. Investors use SKUs to track which items sell, how fast inventory turns, and where profit comes from, so they reveal customer demand, supply-chain efficiency and revenue drivers much like each item in a supermarket tells the store which shelves are performing.

omnichannel technical

A coordinated approach to selling and serving customers across all touchpoints—stores, websites, mobile apps, social media, and call centers—so the experience feels like one continuous conversation no matter where a customer interacts. For investors, omnichannel capability signals how well a company can attract and keep customers, turn interactions into sales, and use shared customer data to cut costs and boost revenue—making it a key driver of growth and competitive strength.

02/10/2026 - 08:00 AM

New integration to unlock revenue channels and simplify operations for retailers and provide "just-in-time" procurement for restaurants

BOSTON & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Toast (NYSE: TOST), the all-in-one digital technology platform built for hospitality, and Instacart (NASDAQ: CART), the leading grocery technology company in North America, today announced a strategic partnership designed to streamline operations for businesses across the United States. The collaboration will enable retailers to easily onboard and sync their brick-and-mortar inventory to the Instacart Marketplace, and will provide restaurants a "just-in-time" solution for essential supplies.

“Whether helping a local grocery shop reach new customers online or enabling a restaurant to ensure the kitchen never runs out of key ingredients during a Friday night rush, this partnership with Instacart aims to help our customers never miss a beat as they run—and grow—their businesses,” said Steve Fredette, Co-Founder and President of Toast. “We’re enabling our retail and restaurant customers to tap into North America’s largest grocery delivery marketplaces—right from the Toast platform—giving our customers a powerful way to help grow their revenue streams and manage their businesses more efficiently.”

“This partnership brings together two platforms that play complementary roles in how retailers and restaurants operate and grow,” said Ryan Hamburger, Vice President of Commercial Partnerships at Instacart. “We’re looking forward to expanding our breadth of retailers by welcoming Toast’s retail partners to the Instacart Marketplace and giving Toast restaurants access to our marketplace via Instacart Business for a fast and flexible way to source produce and other essentials to meet last-minute needs.”

Expanding online marketplace availability for retailers
Through the partnership, Toast retail customers will have streamlined onboarding access to the Instacart Marketplace and seamless ongoing management, creating a high-performance omnichannel engine for food and beverage retailers. The Instacart Marketplace will give Toast customers the potential to expand their digital storefront to additional local consumers on the Instacart Marketplace, unlocking new revenue opportunities, while Toast’s sophisticated platform helps simplify operations.

By leveraging SKU data from Toast’s platform, the collaboration will provide catalog and inventory alignment, supporting frequent inventory updates to help merchants keep online item availability more closely aligned with in-store stock. Additionally, Toast’s SmartScan for barcode optimization, together with Instacart’s enhanced catalog attribution workflows, will help Toast retailers become e-commerce ready by simplifying the process of adding new items to their Instacart storefront.

Enabling “just-in-time” inventory management for restaurants
Instacart Business, the B2B service provider for same-day deliveries, will be a procurement partner for Toast restaurant locations, offering essentials like fresh produce and pantry staples for same-day delivery and helping quickly address last-minute needs, often within an hour, without disrupting operations.

Restaurant operators and their teams will also be able to take advantage of Instacart Business offers, like Instacart+ subscription, which allows businesses to share their subscription across team members and earn cash back on orders.

Toast and Instacart plan to pilot these initiatives early this year, with a full rollout to all U.S. customers expected later this year.

About Toast
Toast [NYSE: TOST] is a cloud-based, all-in-one digital technology platform purpose-built for the entire restaurant community. Toast provides a comprehensive platform of software as a service (SaaS) products and financial technology solutions that give restaurants everything they need to run their business across point of sale, payments, operations, digital ordering and delivery, marketing and loyalty, and team management. For more information, visit www.toasttab.com.

About Instacart
Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, works with grocers and retailers to transform how people shop. The company partners with more than 1,800 national, regional, and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from nearly 100,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. Instacart makes it possible for millions of people to get the groceries they need from the retailers they love, and for approximately 600,000 Instacart shoppers to earn by picking, packing and delivering orders on their own flexible schedule. The Instacart Platform offers retailers a suite of enterprise-grade technology products and services to power their e-commerce experiences, fulfill orders, digitize brick-and-mortar stores, provide advertising services, and glean insights. With Instacart Ads, thousands of CPG brands – from category leaders to emerging brands – partner with the company to connect directly with consumers online, right at the point of purchase. With Instacart Health, the company is providing tools to increase nutrition security, make healthy choices easier for consumers, and expand the role that food can play in improving health outcomes. For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company, and to start shopping, visit www.instacart.com. Maplebear Inc. is the registered corporate name of Instacart.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements,” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the context of the statement and generally arise when Toast or its management is discussing its beliefs, estimates or expectations. Such statements generally include the words “believes,” “plans,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “outlook,” “continues,” or similar expressions. These statements are not historical facts or guarantees of future performance, but represent the beliefs of Toast and its management at the time the statements were made regarding future events which are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside Toast’s control. Actual results and outcomes may differ materially from what is expressed or forecast in such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding Toast’s business arrangement with Instacart and the intended benefits of such business arrangement.

The forward-looking statements contained in this release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Toast’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including in the sections entitled “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations'' in Toast’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, Toast’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended September 30, 2025, and Toast’s subsequent SEC filings. Toast can give no assurance that the plans, intentions, expectations or strategies as reflected in or suggested by those forward-looking statements will be attained or achieved. The forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to Toast as of the date hereof, and Toast disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Toast’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.