Grocery delivery startup Zepto doubles its valuation after $100M funding

Zepto, a 10-minute grocery delivery startup, has raised $100 million or Rs 755 crore in a new financing round at a valuation of $570 million. Y-Combinator's Continuity Fund led the Series C round. The round also saw participation from existing backers such as Nexys Venture Partners, Glade Brook Capital Partner, Contrary Capital, and individual investor Lachy Groom.

The announcement comes almost two months after it raised $60 million in a funding round from Glade Brook Capital at a post-money valuation of $225 million. Founded by Stanford University dropouts Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, Zepto promises to deliver groceries in 10 minutes.

Indeed, the quick commerce delivery sector is very competitive. Zepto's competitors Swiggy, Blinkit (formerly Grofers), Dunzo, and BigBasket, are also doubling their investments in the quick delivery service. Grofers, which recently rebranded its name to Blinkit, said it would operate only in those areas where it can deliver products within 10-minutes.

Zepto plans to utilize the raised funding to expand coverage across multiple cities in India and scale its team across functions. The startup currently has 400 employees and plans to increase up to 1,000-2,000 employees in the upcoming months.

Presently, The platform is operational in major metro cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Gurugram. Recently, it launched its services in Pune and plans to enter Kolkata soon.

The startup claimed that it has set up 100 micro-warehouses (dark stores) with a capacity of handling over 2,500 orders a day since its launch five months ago.

“We are growing 200% month-on-month. Since the last round, we have grown 10-fold in terms of volume. We are planning to increase our volume by 10x in the next 2-3 months,” cofounder Aadit Palicha said.

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