Aadit Palicha, co-founder and CEO of the quick commerce platform Zepto, described that the three-year-old company is positioning itself as India's equivalent of hyperlocal Walmart. Zepto secured a $665 million funding round on June 22, valuing the company at $3.6 billion and solidifying its presence in India's rapidly expanding quick commerce sector.
“We think of ourselves as a hyperlocal Walmart for a hyperlocal India…that was the big gap that helped us get to the scale and the level of profitability we’ve gotten to,” Palicha said at an event in New Delhi on Saturday.
“In commerce generally, nobody has been able to build a hyperlocal platform at scale that has quality customer experience…and the reality is that most (of the) commerce in India is done on a hyperlocal basis. The reason why we’re seeing such an incredible product market fit is because we’re the first commerce platform that beats the proximity advantage with the structural advantages of a large-scale retailer in terms of price and sourcing leverage, selection, quality control,” Palicha added.
While Zepto, along with other quick commerce players like Blinkit, owned by Zomato, and Swiggy’s Instamart, which is preparing for an IPO, expanded into categories such as consumer electronics, fashion, home furnishings, and beauty and personal care, Palicha emphasised that the greatest potential lies in groceries and household essentials.
According to him, the Indian market for groceries and household essentials reached $650 billion in size as of FY23 and is expected to expand to $850 billion by FY29.
“If you want to build a business that’s larger than Amazon or Flipkart…grocery is bigger than all the categories that Amazon and Flipkart serve combined. If you take electronics, apparel, furniture, and all the others—and double them—they’re still not as large as grocery and household essentials. So we’re building in the mother of all categories,” the Zepto CEO said.
Palicha also emphasised that Zepto will maintain its focus on the market potential within India's top 40 cities, which are projected to account for nearly half of the grocery and household essentials segment by FY29.