Zepto raises $340 million, mops up $1 billion this year

MUMBAI: Quick commerce startup Zepto has raised one other $340 million in funding led by US-based enterprise capital agency General Catalyst at a valuation of $5 billion, bagging a complete of $1 billion in funding from buyers in 2024. In the span of a year, the startup’s valuation has greater than tripled. Zepto had turned unicorn after buyers infused about $235 million into the corporate at a valuation of $1.4 billion in Aug final year.
The recent funding is an extension of its funding spherical as a part of which the fast commerce startup had garnered $665 million in funding from buyers at a valuation of $3.6 billion in June. Dragon Fund and Epiq Capital joined the agency’s cap desk within the observe on spherical whereas current backers equivalent to StepStone, Lightspeed, DST, and Contrary additionally participated and elevated their stakes.

The fast commerce area has piqued investor curiosity amid rising client adoption of 10-15 minute supply companies. The comfort of speedy deliveries of a spread of things on the buyer’s doorstep has led extra folks to signal up platforms like Zepto, Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart which permit them to save lots of time and inventory up on home items with ease at any hour of the day. All three firms have expanded past groceries to ship a bunch of different gadgets starting from trolley luggage, toys, kitchen home equipment to headphones and infrequently even iPhones. With fast commerce corporations foraying into classes which had historically been the area of e-commerce gamers, deep pocketed firms like Flipkart have additionally entered the area.
Zepto’s whole fund depend to this point stands at over $1.5 billion. “The rationale behind this follow-on financing was two-fold. First, the opportunity to bring onboard a lead investor of Neeraj Arora’s calibre from General Catalyst was one we couldn’t pass on. Second, strengthening our balance sheet is a strategic move, particularly as the company continues to deliver robust growth and operating leverage,” Aadit Palicha, co-founder & CEO at Zepto mentioned in a press release. In an interview to TOI in June, Palicha had mentioned that the corporate has been capable of develop its gross sales and are fairly near general ebitda break even.
Zepto, co-founded by Palicha and fellow Stanford dropout Kaivalya Vohra in 2021, plans to increase into newer cities past the massive metros like Coimbatore and Lucknow going forward. The firm additionally plans to take its darkish retailer depend to 700 from the present 370 by March 2025. It is already delivering in cities like Nashik, Gandhinagar, outskirts of Jaipur and Ahmedabad.