Specializing in fast trading Zepto has raised $340 million in a funds round with a valuation of $5 billion.
The latest investment was led by General catalystwith Dragon Fund and Epiq Capital joining as new investors. Existing investors including StepStone, Lightspeed, DST and Contrary also participated.
He raised more than a billion dollars in just three months
It is worth noting that the three-year-old startup has raised over $1 billion in funding in the past three months. By June 2024, Zepto raised $665 millionwhich raised its valuation from $1.4 billion to $3.6 billion.
Glade Brook, Nexus and StepStone Group jointly led that Series F round.
CEO Palicha explains the reason for the fundraiser
Aadit Palicha, co-founder and CEO of Zepto, explained that the reason behind raising fresh funding was twofold. “Firstly, the opportunity to bring on board a leading investor of the calibre of Neeraj Arora from General Catalyst was something we couldn’t pass up.”
“Second, strengthening our balance sheet is a strategic move, particularly as the company continues to show strong growth and operating leverage. While the recent funding reflects strong confidence in Zepto’s performance to date, we recognise that we still have a lot of work ahead of us to fulfil our ambition of building a world-class Internet company in India,” Palicha said.
Palicha, whose net worth now stands at Rs 4,300 crore, said the latest investment will help Zepto strengthen its balance sheet ahead of its planned IPO in about 12 months.
“I have known Aadit and Kaivalya for several years, and they are truly exceptional founders who have turned their bold mission to modernize India’s grocery sector into a category-defining company… having personally witnessed their bold vision and unmatched execution with Zepto since its inception in 2020,” said Neeraj Arora, CEO of General Catalyst.
“The young founders possess a rare combination of innovative systems thinking and a mission that has attracted top talent in the industry. Their long-term vision of reinventing and building an enduring supply chain company is a quick commercial bet today,” he added.
Reaching unicorn status
In August of last year, Zepto joins the unicorn startup club after raising $200 million in a Series E funding round at a valuation of $1.4 billion.
The new Series E round was led by StepStone Group, with participation from Goodwater Capital and existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Glade Brook Capital and Lachy Groom, among others.
Zepto’s presence in the market
Founded in 2021 by Stanford dropouts Kaivalya Vohra and Aadit Palicha, Zepto operates in the highly competitive express commerce market, delivering groceries, household items and electronic accessories to urban Indian consumers within 10 to 15 minutes.
The startup uses a network of “dark stores,” small warehouses located near high-demand areas, allowing it to guarantee fast delivery times.
It currently has more than 50,000 delivery partners, adding around 5,000 new partners every month, and plans to expand its dark store network to 700 by March 2025.
Currently, Zepto has around 350 dark stores across 10 cities including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Noida and Pune.
According to HSBC, the unicorn had a 28% market share in January 2024, up from 15% in March 2022. Blinkit had a 40% market share in January and Instamart had 32%.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the post for any purpose.
We respect the intellectual property rights of content creators. If you are the owner of any material featured on our website and have concerns about its use, please contact us. We are committed to addressing any copyright issues promptly and will remove any material within 2 days of receiving a request from the rightful owner.