Food delivery company Instacart is scrapping plans to go public this year, three people familiar with the matter said, in the latest sign of turmoil in the public market.

The company is one of the few tech companies to seek to go public as investors this year but has closed the door on using the cash to unprofitable entities for initial public offerings. Wall Street, nervous about rising inflation, the war in Ukraine and fears of a recession, is more inclined to capitalise on safe bets.

Instacart filed a so-called confidential filing this year, which means it doesn’t have to disclose certain data about its business. The filing doesn’t call for a public offering for Instacart, but it’s considered a big step toward a public offering.

But the window to go public this year is closing fast. Bankers are reluctant to list companies over the holidays, and time is running out for companies.

Founded in 2012, Instacart pairs people who order groceries from home through its app with shoppers who work as the company’s independent contractors. A contractor picks up someone’s groceries and delivers them.

Instacart’s revenue surged as COVID-19 cases climbed at the start of the pandemic, and people preferred not to go to stores for safety reasons. But that acceleration declined in the second quarter of 2021 as more people got vaccinated and returned to normal shopping habits.

In March, the company cut its internal valuation to $24 billion from $40 billion. “We are confident in the strength of our business, but we are not immune to the market turmoil affecting leading public and private technology companies,” Instacart said.

The year for public offerings got off to a slow start. The pace of IPOs in the first half of this year was the slowest since 2009, according to Dealogic. The lack of such products has also cut into earnings for some of Wall Street’s biggest banks.