BENGALURU: Within nine months of its launch, quick commerce startup Zepto has raised $200 million led by YCombinator which values the firm at around $900 million. The round was backed by new investor Kaiser Permanente and existing investors, including Nexus Venture Partners, Glade Brook Capital, and Lachy Groom. Zepto has raised $360 million till date.
Nineteen-year-olds Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra left computer science degrees at Stanford University to build Zepto earlier this year. Zepto delivers groceries across 3,000 products in 10 minutes. The venture operates on a hub-and-spoke model through a network of dark stores or retail distribution centers that cater exclusively to online shopping.
China has several players in the segment, as does Europe, including UK-based Dija, founded by former Deliveroo employees, Germany’s Gorillas and Flink, and France’s Cajon.
Register Now Double MBA Degree from IU Germany and London South Bank University (LSBU) UKIts co-founder and CEO Palicha said, “We posted 800% quarter-on-quarter revenue growth, while burn has come down 5X on a per-order basis. This unbelievable execution over the past few months has made it clear to investors that Zepto will be one of the winners in Indian quick commerce.”
Palicha had previously told bthat the median delivery time is 8 mins 47 seconds. Zepto piloted Zepto Cafe’, its cafe format with ready-to-drink coffee, chai, and packaged snacks (like biscuits and sandwiches). If the pilot takes off, Zepto plans to expand this service across India.
Zepto has hired senior leaders from Flipkart, Uber, Dream11, Pharmeasy, and Pepperfry. Zepto is also hiring for roles across engineering, operations, marketing, and finance. It has grown the team to over 1,000 people.
Its co-founder and CTO Kaivalya said, “We’ve turned micro-markets profitable and brought down burn significantly while growing to a scale of hundreds of thousands of orders per day.”
Source: https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/e-commerce/e-tailing/zepto-raises-200-million-valued-at-900-million/91276547