Zepto, the 10-minute grocery delivery service, is gearing up to become bigger than D-Mart in sales within the next 18 to 24 months, according to co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha. Speaking at the JIIF Foundation Day event in Delhi, Palicha expressed confidence in Zepto’s growth trajectory.
“DMart is a $30 billion company and they are only 4.5 times our size in sales. If we continue to execute well, we will continue to grow 2-3 times every year. And potentially surpass them in next 18-24 months which is an exceptionally well executed consumer company,” he said.
Palicha highlighted the immense potential of India’s grocery market, valued at $650 billion in FY23 and projected to grow to $885 billion by the end of FY29, a 9% growth rate. Zepto’s strategy focuses on the top 40 cities in India, targeting 50 to 75 million households.
“Grocery is bigger than all the categories that Amazon and Flipkart service. We are building the mother of all categories… We have had a crazy journey in the past 3 years. We have gone from zero to ₹10,000 crore in less than 3 years. It is the fastest company in Internet India to do that. Flipkart did it in 4 years. We did it in 2.5 years,” Palicha added.
Zepto has ambitious plans to scale from ₹10,000 crore to ₹2.5 lakh crore in the coming years. To fuel this growth, the company has been actively raising funds. In a recent Series D funding round led by Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund, Zepto secured $200 million, bringing its valuation to $900 million. This follows a Series C round in January where it raised $100 million at a $570 million valuation, and a $60 million raise in November. Overall, Zepto has raised $360 million since its inception.
Founded by Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra in 2021, Zepto operates a network of cloud stores, enabling it to deliver groceries in under 10 minutes. It competes with major players in the quick commerce space, including Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and BigBasket’s BB Now by Tata.