Instabee

E-commerce delivery / logisticsSweden

New to Unitard

✂️ Markdown

Peak $1.67 BillionToday

~-77%

from peak

🦄
Became a unicorn
Sep 2022
📈
Peak valuation
$1.67 Billion ’22
💔
Became a Unitard
Sep 2023
💸
Last valuation
~$383M

Current status

Private; operates the Budbee and Instabox last-mile delivery brands in the Nordics and Benelux; exited Germany in October 2023; Kinnevik (16%) and Creades (9%) carry their stakes well below the 2022 merger value

The rise & fall

8 moments · 2015–2026

The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.

2015

Budbee and Instabox are founded in Stockholm

Fredrik Hamilton's Budbee delivers online orders to the door; Alexis Priftis's Instabox builds a network of parcel lockers. Both serve retailers such as H&M.

TechCrunch

Sep 19 ’22

The peak: Budbee and Instabox merge as Instabee at SEK 18B$1.67B

The agreed combination values Instabee at SEK 18B (about $1.7B); Kinnevik becomes the largest holder with 13%, worth SEK 2.4B. Hamilton is named CEO and Priftis chair.

Kinnevik

Sep 30 ’23

Kinnevik cuts its mark by 41% — joins the Unitard Club 💔$718M

Kinnevik values its 13% at SEK 1,016M, implying about $718M for Instabee, citing shrinking e-commerce volumes and shoppers choosing cheaper delivery.

Kinnevik Q3 2023

Oct 2023

Priftis becomes CEO; Hamilton moves to the board

Instabee changes the roles of its two co-founders, Kinnevik reports.

Kinnevik Q3 2023

Oct 16 ’23

Instabox pulls out of Germany

Instabox says its market share is too small to sustain operations and ends German deliveries at the end of October; it had already left the Netherlands in 2022.

Retail-news.de

2022–24

From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2022–24

Glassdoor reviews of Budbee and Instabee described high staff turnover, top-down decisions and hectic deadlines, while many reviewers praised their colleagues.

Sep 30 ’26

Kinnevik marks its 16% stake at SEK 605M$379M

The mark implies about SEK 3.8B, or roughly $379M, for the whole company, down from SEK 725M at the end of 2025.

Kinnevik Q3 2026

Sep 30 ’26

Creades values its 9% at SEK 393M$438M

Creades values its holding on an EV/Sales multiple of 1.6x with a 38% discount, implying about $438M for Instabee.

Creades Q3 2026

💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.

How it happened

Instabee was formed in 2022 by merging two Stockholm last-mile delivery startups founded in 2015: Budbee, led by founder Fredrik Hamilton, and Instabox, co-founded by Alexis Priftis. Both delivered online orders to homes and parcel lockers for retailers such as H&M. Kinnevik announced the combination on September 19, 2022, at an agreed valuation of SEK 18B, about $1.7B, and became the largest shareholder.

Kinnevik later said shrinking e-commerce volumes and price-sensitive shoppers hurt the business, and it wrote its stake down sharply in late 2023. Priftis took over as CEO that October, and Instabox pulled out of Germany.

Kinnevik valued its 16% stake at SEK 605M on September 30, 2026, implying roughly $380M for the whole company; Creades' 9% stake implies about $440M.

Source: Kinnevik release (Sept 19, 2022): Budbee and Instabox combine as Instabee at an agreed valuation of SEK 18bn; Kinnevik 13% pro forma, fair value SEK 2.4bn; at the ECB rate of 10.8101 SEK/USD that day = about $1.665B (TechCrunch: about $1.7B). Kinnevik Q3 2023 report (Oct 18, 2023): Instabee 13%, fair value SEK 1,016M at Sept 30, 2023 (SEK 1,736M at June 30), implying about SEK 7.8B or $718M for the company; Priftis became CEO and Hamilton moved to the board in October 2023. Kinnevik Q3 2026 report (Oct 15, 2026): 16% stake, fair value SEK 605M at Sept 30, 2026 (SEK 579M at June 30, SEK 725M at Dec 31, 2025), implying about SEK 3.78B or $379M at the ECB rate of 9.9789; the drop is keyed to this mark. Creades Q3 2026 report: 9% stake valued at SEK 393M on an EV/Sales model, implying about SEK 4.37B or $438M. Stake-implied values are approximate (rounded ownership, possible preference terms). Retail-news.de (Oct 16, 2023): Instabox ends German operations.

Founders

Fredrik Hamilton
Budbee founder; Instabee CEO at the 2022 merger (peak); Alexis Priftis CEO from Oct 2023
LinkedIn ↗
Alexis Priftis
Instabox co-founder; Instabee chair (2022), CEO (2023–)
Still there — CEO & Co-founderLinkedIn ↗

Current roles as self-reported on LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-10-22. See our methodology.

Disclosed investors (2)

Historical funding participation; lists may be incomplete and do not establish current ownership or investor losses.

* Lead in a funding round · Crunchbase ↗ · 2026-10-22 · Methodology · Leaderboard