Draft:Zepto (company)

Zepto is an Indian Q-commerce company focused on grocery. It was founded in July 2021 by Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra. The company is based out of Mumbai and operates over 200 dark-stores across ten metropolitan areas in India.

History
Aadit Palicha started Zepto with Kaivalya Vohra in 2020 when they were 17 years old. Palicha and Vohra skipped college to start Zepto, instead raising capital from Contrary, which offered to invest if they dropped out of Stanford University.

Palicha and Vohra originally branded the company as KiranaKart and focused on facilitating grocery delivery by partnering with local kirana stores, but that approach did not gain traction. They also participated in Y Combinator's accelerator program while building out the first version of the platform.

Business
In 2021, the company rebranded to Zepto and verticalized the operation, building a network of dark stores to fulfill orders. In April 2022, Zepto launched Cafe, a division focused on delivery of coffee and ready-to-eat food. In February 2023, the company launched Bloom, a platform for farmers to manage food production and distribute goods from villages to cities.

Zepto and other major delivery platforms including Zomato, Blinkit, and Swiggy employ over 3 million gig workers.

The company began a paid membership program in February 2024, which has over 4 million subscribers as of April 2024.

Controversy
In April 2022, Anand Mahindra publicly commented that q-commerce delivery is "inhuman" to the delivery workers that Zepto and peers contract to fulfill orders. Palicha responded, arguing that only speeds of less than 15 kmph are necessary to make deliveries. In 2023, the New York Times reported that Zepto delivery drivers make $240 per month on average.

Funding
Zepto has raised $560 million. The company measures its capital in US dollars rather than Indian Rupees. Other notable investors include Jim Breyer, Lachy Groom, and Global Founders Capital. Zepto was India's first Unicorn (finance) of 2023, and one of two companies to be valued over $1 billion that year.