Indian E-Commerce Unicorn Zepto Plans To Double Outlets After Raising Funding At $3.6 Billion Valuation

Mumbai-based quick commerce company Zepto plans to double its warehouses—known as dark stores—across India to 700 stores by March 2025 after achieving a valuation of $3.6 billion from its latest fund raising announced on Friday. This is about 2.6 times the valuation it had in its previous financing round.

Zepto was founded in 2021 by then 19-year olds Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, who gave up places at an undegrad program in computer science at Stanford University to start a grocery delivery service. It has since branched out to deliver everything from apparel to toys and has grown to become one of India’s largest quick commerce players by gross merchandise value, competing against the likes of Zomato’s Blinkit and Swiggy’s Instamart as well as BBnow, run by Tata Group’s BigBasket.

“This dynamic of stores turning profitable faster and faster has enabled Zepto to grow rapidly while simultaneously achieving near EBITDA positivity at a company level,” Palicha, cofounder and CEO of Zepto, said in a statement. “We plan to continue operating with fiscal discipline as we scale from 350 stores to 700 stores by reinvesting capital generated from mature stores back into the business.”

As of May, Zepto said it’s on track to deliver over $1 billion of GMV in the current fiscal year ending March 2025, with about 75% of its warehouse outlets already making an operating profit. The stores now take six months to become profitable as compared to 23 months previously, it added.

Palicha—who together with Vohra was featured on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia list in 2022—said the company “will be ready to go public relatively soon” if the momentum continues.

In its latest funding round announced on Friday, Zepto raised $665 million from new investors including private equity firm Avenir, venture capital firm Lightspeed, and Avra, a new fund started by former Y Combinator Continuity head Anu Hariharan. Existing investors including Glade Brook Capital Partners, Nexus, and StepStone Group also contributed in the round, the Indian unicorn said in the statement. The round comes just nine months after the company raised $235 million in December at a $1.4 billion valuation.

“Zepto is redefining e-commerce in India, with uniquely strong product- market fit and world-class execution and innovation,” Paul Hudson, chief investment officer of Glade Brook, said in the statement.

—With reporting from Anu Raghunathan