| Zepto | |
| Former Name: | KiranaKart |
| Type: | Private |
| Industry: | Q-commerce |
| Hq Location City: | Mumbai |
| Hq Location Country: | India |
| Num Locations: | 250 stores (2024) |
| Services: | Online grocer |
| Revenue: | (FY23)[1] |
| Net Income: | (FY23) |
Zepto is an Indian Q-commerce company headquartered in Mumbai, India. It was founded in July 2021 by Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra.[2] As of August 2024, the company is valued at over $5 billion[3] and operates over 250 dark-stores across ten metropolitan areas in India.[4]
Zepto competes in India's hyper-competitive grocery delivery space. Rivals in the market include e-commerce giant Amazon's India unit and homegrown competitors such as Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit, and conglomerate Tata Group's BigBasket.
Aadit Palicha started KiranaKart with Kaivalya Vohra in 2020 when they were 17 years old.[5] [6] Palicha and Vohra skipped college to start Zepto, instead raising capital from Contrary, which offered to invest if they dropped out of Stanford University.[7] [8]
Palicha and Vohra originally branded the company as KiranaKart and focused on facilitating grocery delivery by partnering with local kirana stores, but that approach did not gain traction.[9] They also participated in Y Combinator's accelerator program while building out the first version of the platform.[10]
In 2021, the company rebranded to Zepto and verticalized the operation, building a network of dark stores to fulfill orders. In April 2022, Zepto launched Cafe, a division focused on delivery of coffee and ready-to-eat food.[11] In February 2023, the company launched Bloom, a platform for farmers to manage food production and distribute goods from villages to cities.[12]
Zepto and other major delivery platforms including Zomato, Blinkit, and Swiggy employ over 3 million gig workers. The company began a paid membership program in February 2024,[13] which has over 4 million subscribers as of April 2024.[14]
In January 2021, KiranaKart (now Zepto) raised $730,000 in a pre-seed round led by Global Founders Capital, Contrary Capital, 2 AM Ventures, and angel investors.
In October 2021, it raised $60 million from Nexus, Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital, as well as angel investors Lachy Groom, Neeraj Arora and Manik Gupta at $225 million valuation.
In December 2021, the company raised $100 million Series C round led by Y Combinator's Continuity Fund at a valuation of $570 million.
In May 2022, zepto raised $200 million at $900 million valuation as a part of its Series D round which was again led by Y Combinator's Continuity Fund. Investors including Nexus Venture Partners, Glade Brook Capital and Contrary Capital participated in the new round.
In August 2023, Zepto raised $200 million as part of its Series E round at a $1.4 billion valuation, becoming a unicorn. It raised funds from U.S-based investment firms StepStone Group and Goodwater Capital. Existing backers including Nexus Venture Partners and Glade Brook Capital also participated in the deal.[15]
In June 2024, Zepto raised $665 million funding at $3.6 billion valuation as part of its Series F round and $340 million funding at a $5 billion valuation two months later, raising over $1 billion in 2024 and more than $1.5 billion since its inception.
| Pre-Seed[16] [17] | $730,000 | $2.5 million | Contrary | |
| Series A[18] | $60 million | $225 million | Glade Brook Capital | |
| Series C[19] | $100 million | $570 million | Y Combinator | |
| Series D[20] | $200 million | $900 million | Y Combinator | |
| Series E[21] [22] | $200 million | $1.4 billion | StepStone Group | |
| Series F[23] | $665 Million | $3.6 Billion | Glade Brook, Nexus and Stepstone | |
| Follow up round[24] | $340 Million | $5 Billion | General Catalyst |
In April 2022, Anand Mahindra commented that q-commerce delivery is "inhuman" to the delivery workers that Zepto and peers contract to fulfill orders. Aadit Palicha, the co-founder of the company responded that only speeds of less than 15 km/h are necessary to make deliveries.[25] In 2023, the New York Times reported that Zepto delivery drivers make $240 per month on average to which Palicha said Zepto's business was built on frequent, fast deliveries.[26]