Zepto, a quick commerce company, announced on Friday that it has secured $665 million (approximately Rs 5,560 crore) in its latest funding round, making the firm's total valuation $3.6 billion—nearly triple its valuation from a year ago. This significant fundraising effort follows less than a year after the Mumbai-based startup raised $235 million when it was valued at $1.4 billion.
The funding round attracted participation from new investors such as Avenir, Lightspeed, and Avra, alongside existing investors Glade Brook, Nexus, StepStone, Goodwater, and Lachy Groom.
"We've gone from 0 to 1 billion-plus in sales, or GMV, in 29 months, that is faster than any other internet company before us... Even on a base of over a billion dollars at this point, we are growing 100 per cent-plus year on year. And that for us is one of the big drivers of this fundraise," Zepto co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha told the news agency PTI.
The young entrepreneur attributed the growth of the quick commerce firm to the excellence they have established throughout the supply chain. "This is largely because of the input excellence we've built across the supply chain," he said.
"Whether it is sourcing excellence, mother hub efficiency, line haul utilisation, or our last mile, the innovation that we've done, or forecasting, we're in this place where even as we've been able to grow, we've been able to drive efficiency to get the business to pretty much close to full operating cash flow positive today." He said the overall business is close to operating at break-even cash flow.
He mentioned that as of May 2024, almost 75 per cent of the company's stores are entirely EBITDA positive.
"Over the next 12-18 months, although it might fluctuate, but we'll still be pretty close to operating cash flow positive, and the idea is to keep in that direction, get the business to a place where we can list next 9-12 months," he said.
Kaivalya Vohra, co-founder and CTO of Zepto stated that the company intends to recruit top talent in engineering, product development, growth strategy, finance, operations, and category management.
Vohra said, "If you are looking for a high growth, high meritocracy and high intensity culture where you can convert hard work and ambition into disproportionate career growth, Zepto is the place for you.”