Instacart just hired top Goldman Sachs tech banker Nick Giovanni as CFO as the grocery-delivery giant gears up to go public

• Instacart tapped Nick Giovanni, former Goldman Sachs head of the Global Technology, Media and Telecom Group, to be its CFO.
• At the bank, Giovanni advised tech companies like Airbnb, DoorDash, and Yelp.
• In November, the online grocery delivery platform picked Goldman Sachs to lead its IPO, which could come in 2021 and value the gig-work firm around $30 billion.

A top Goldman Sachs dealmaker is leaving to join the firm's client Instacart, the online grocery delivery company prepping for an initial public offering.

Nick Giovanni, who previously served as Goldman's global head of its technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) group, is departing to join Instacart, effective January 27.

CNBC first reported the move on Thursday. His last day at Goldman Sachs will be Friday, Insider has confirmed.

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Read more: Read the full memo naming the new co-heads of Goldman Sach's powerhouse tech team as top dealmaker Nick Giovanni exits

In November, Reuters first reported Instacart had selected Goldman Sachs to lead its IPO, which is expected this year. The startup, which is reportedly hoping to go public with a $30 billion valuation, announced Giovanni's hire via a blog post.

Giovanni "has served as a trusted advisor to Instacart," the company said in the release. He will replace current CFO Sagar Sanghvi, who was with Instacart for five years.

Giovanni, who worked at Goldman Sachs for 20 years, ran the bank's TMT group since 2019. That unit has advised a bevy of high-profile tech firms on various transactions and IPOs, including Airbnb, DoorDash, Twitter, Square, Dropbox, Snap, Yelp, Zynga, eBay, Meituan, Baidu, Spotify, and Slack.

See more: 2 of Goldman Sachs' top tech bankers explain how Biden could impact the listings frenzy and why the IPO roadshow will never be the same

In 2020, it worked on both mergers and IPOs including the largest software IPO of the year - Snowflake - and the largest acquisition of the year - client S&P's $44 billion all-stock purchase of data firm IHS Markit.

In M&A, Goldman's TMT group was the industry leader, advising on roughly $275 billion in announced deal volume, outpacing Morgan Stanley ($270 billion), and Bank of America (nearly $264 billion), according to data service Dealogic. On the IPO side, Goldman advised on clients like Snowflake, DoorDash, and AirBnb, all of which raised north of $3 billion from their public market debuts.

Previously, Giovanni served as Goldman's co-head of global technology investment banking and chief operating officer of TMT.

At Goldman, Giovanni will be replaced by two investment-banking veterans

Giovanni is replaced by Goldman veterans Sam Britton and Matt Gibson, who will serve as global co-heads of the group, effective immediately.

Britton served as the co-head of mergers and acquisitions for the TMT group, and Gibson was formerly the bank's co-head of investment-banking services and co-head of the firm's One Goldman Sachs initiative. Both are partners and have notched more than two decades at Goldman.

The news of the new roles for Britton and Gibson was first announced on Thursday by Dan Dees and Jim Esposito, co-heads of the investment-banking division, in a memo viewed by Insider.

Read more: Goldman Sachs' Sam Britton expects more 'dream deals' like Salesforce-Slack in 2021, and reveals the next hot M&A ideas

Prior to the announcement of his new role, Britton spoke to Insider in December as he looked back on a whirlwind year of M&A activity. From his position, he helped steer M&A within the industry's leading TMT group, which has consistently outperformed the competition from other advisory units at firms like Morgan Stanley and Bank of America.

In the interview, Britton shared an optimistic forecast for more "dream deals" in the new year.

"This is a business where experience begets more activity," he said, "and there's a virtuous cycle there."