New Delhi, April 9 -- Quick commerce startup Zepto, which is reportedly in talks for a secondary share sale of $250 million (Rs 2,166 crore) as it plans for a public listing, is nearing $4 billion in annualized gross order value (GOV).
This represents a nearly 4x growth from a year ago, in April 2024, when the GOV was about $1 billion, CEO Aadit Palicha said on LinkedIn. The startup was valued at $5 billion in its last external round.
GOV represents the total value of all orders placed, before any deductions, returns, cancellations, or discounts. For Zepto, which offers more than 45,000 products, including fresh groceries, electronics, beauty essentials, apparels and toys, this includes fruits and vegetables at their selling price, as well as ancillary income sources like subscription fees and advertisements, among others, Palicha explained.
Zepto has experienced 30% growth since January of this year, amassing $1 billion in GOV within just the last three months, thanks to its aggressive expansion strategy.
The startup, which raised over $1 billion in capital from multiple funding rounds through 2024, saw its GOV rise from $550 million in 2023 to nearly $1 billion in April 2024. In January, Palicha said that Zepto was nearing $3 billion in GOV.
"More importantly, we have reduced earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (excluding ESOPs) and operating cash flow burn by 50% even as we grew meaningfully during the last 3 months," Palicha said.
For the financial year ended March 2024, the company improved its EBITDA loss by about 8%, reaching Rs 1,071 crore, according to VCCEdge, the data research platform of VCCircle. Meanwhile, it posted a net loss of Rs 1,249 crore on a revenue of Rs 4,455 crore.
Zepto also reported a negative cash flow from operations of about Rs 1,131 crore in FY24. It was the second-largest startup with negative cash flow among the top 50-funded startups, according to a VCCircle study.
"We are confident in being within touching distance of EBITDA (excluding ESOPs) and operating cash flow breakeven within a few months (with a large net cash buffer still on the balance sheet)," Palicha said. "Our newly launched dark stores continue to track towards EBITDA breakeven, just as the dark stores we launched over the last 3 years did in our previous store expansion cycles."
Meanwhile, the company's early investors are expected to sell their stakes as part of the ongoing round.
Zepto's early backers include Contrary Capital Management, Y Combinator, GFC Global Founders Capital, and 2am VC, which invested in the company in early 2021 as part of its seed round. 2am VC no longer lists Zepto among its active portfolio companies, suggesting it may have already exited.
Glade Brook Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, and some individual investors joined Zepto's cap table in late 2021, as part of a $60-million investment round.
Zepto, founded by Kaivalya Vohra and Aadit Palicha, operates a network of micro-warehouses, known as 'dark stores', to deliver groceries and essentials to customers in minutes. The startup competes in the quick commerce space, facing competition from players like Swiggy's Instamart and Zomato's Blinkit.
The company has so far raised more than $1.9 billion, including a November round led by Motilal Oswal AMC, with participation from family offices and individuals such as actor Abhishek Bachchan and former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.
Earlier in 2024, Zepto raised $340 million in a funding round led by US venture capital firm General Catalyst. The company entered the unicorn club in August 2023 when it mopped up $200 million in a Series E round that valued it at $1.4 billion.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.