Instacart Founder’s Instant Billion | Zoom Should Watch Around | Utah’s Largest Funding Round

Plus: Drones With 'Most Advanced AI Ever' Coming Soon To Your Local Police Department

Good morning.

A new funding round for Instacart adds another $1 billion to its 34-year-old founder Apoorva Mehta’s net worth. We also look at how a Utah-based company scored the largest ever funding round in the Beehive state, and why Zoom should watch out for collaboration startup Around.

In The News Today

A military base in western Iraq that hosts U.S.-led coalition forces was struck by at least 10 rockets, but no casualties were reported. 

Reports published in The Times accuse Meghan Markle of bullying royal aides ahead of the Sussexes’ highly anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Top Take-Aways

A House Subcommittee is investigating claims that primary care company One Medical let patients skip the line to get Covid-19 vaccines and unfairly prioritized its own employees to receive vaccines after Forbes and others reported these practices.

While Mitch McConnell said Republicans will fight the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill “in every way that we can,” the Senate should seize the opportunity to improve the legislation to better target relief funds—Forbes contributor Ben Ritz suggests how to do that.

Long regarded as South Korea’s answer to Amazon, Coupang is planning for an IPO in New York that could value the company between $46 billion and $51 billion, earning its founder and chief executive, Bom Kim, a net worth of at least $4.7 billion.

Collaboration software Around lets users’ heads appear as small bubbles floating over wherever a team is working, such as a shared Google Doc. The startup has received $15.2 million in funding so far and says it’s experienced 30% week-to-week growth.

Instacart closed a $265 million funding round that sent the grocery delivery app’s value to $39 billion, the company announced. The new valuation adds more than $1 billion to the fortune of 34-year-old founder Apoorva Mehta.

U.S. airlines have experienced a 60% decrease in passenger numbers in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but they are still struggling to land some of their flights on time—meaning with 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time.

Black business owners shone brightly on Forbes’ inaugural Next 1000 list of small-scale superachievers redefining what it means to build and run a business today. They represent nearly 32% of applicants (thus far—nominations are open year-round) and 20% of our first group of 250 honorees. Here, we take a look at 10 standouts.

Today's Must Read

In Case You Missed It

One of the year’s marquee events on the GOP calendar, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), turned into a PR nightmare for the Hyatt hotel group that hosted the event at its Hyatt Regency in Orlando, Florida, after outrage erupted over CPAC’s stage design, which drew comparisons to a Norse rune used by Nazis during World War II. 

Tips You Can Trust

The Nine Types Of People You Need In Your Success Circle

Thinking Of Cord Cutting? Check Your Pandemic Data Usage First

Across Forbes