Instacart cofounder Apoorva Mehta stole trade secrets: Lawsuit

NEW DELHI: Apoorva Mehta, the Indian-origin Co-founder of grocery delivery company Instacart, has been accused of using stolen trade secrets to build a healthcare startup promoting weight loss.

Hello Logistics, which operates under the name NextMed, has sued Mehta, his business partner Tejasvi Singh, and their company Cloud Health Systems, it was reported.

Indian-Canadian businessman Mehta, who announced to step down as executive chairman of Instacart in July this year, has been sued over allegations of misappropriation of trade secrets, copyright infringement and other claims.

As per the lawsuit, Singh collected some of NextMed’s trade secrets under the guise of gathering the information as part of “due diligence for investors”.

Mehta and Singh then used the information to create a company that “does business as Sunrise, with a copycat website”, according to the complaint.

They also allegedly implemented NextMed’s highly confidential customer acquisition and other strategies, “in mere weeks”.

Mehta’s new healthcare company has raised $30 million from two venture capital firms.