In a recent call with analysts and investors, Zepto co-founder Aadit Palicha outlined the Indian delivery startup’s ambitious plan to achieve 150% growth over the next year.
This bold projection underscores the meteoric rise of quick commerce in India’s bustling retail landscape.
Addressing representatives from heavyweight investment firms like Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Temasek, GIC, and Invesco, Palicha shared that Zepto’s annualized sales run rate has already soared past $1.5 billion.
If the company hits its growth target, sales could leap to over $3.5 billion within 12 months, signaling that the quick commerce sector in India is far from peaking.
The sector’s fierce competition includes Zomato’s Blinkit, SoftBank-backed Swiggy Instamart, and Tata-owned BigBasket, all vying for dominance with their lightning-fast 10- to 15-minute delivery promises.
Blinkit remains a formidable rival with a current run rate of approximately $2 billion.
Quick commerce is making significant inroads into India’s sprawling $1.1 trillion unorganized retail market.
The sector, led by players like Zepto, Blinkit, Swiggy, and BigBasket’s BB Now, is on track to clock over $6 billion in annual sales—an impressive slice compared to the broader e-commerce market’s $50 billion.
Interestingly, while India’s e-commerce market is growing at 11-12% annually, quick commerce has been surging at over 100% year-on-year for the past three years.
As Rahul Malhotra, an e-commerce analyst at Bernstein, pointed out, these rapid delivery services are “clearly taking share” from larger e-commerce platforms.
Investors on the call questioned the scalability of quick commerce beyond India’s top-tier cities. Palicha, however, was unfazed.
“Quick commerce is not a Tier 1 phenomenon,” he stated, emphasizing the untapped potential in India’s tier 2 and 3 cities, where demand surges despite broader market sentiment.
Palicha also confirmed that Zepto has raised $1 billion in just the past 90 days.
This fresh capital injection, he said, arms the company with the resources needed to fuel its aggressive expansion strategy.
Earlier reports from TechCrunch had pegged Zepto’s valuation at $5 billion, following a $340 million funding round led by General Catalyst.
This came on the heels of a $665 million raise in June, further solidifying Zepto’s standing as a key player in India’s quick commerce revolution.
With quick commerce continuing to redefine convenience in India, Zepto’s aggressive growth trajectory paints a clear picture: this is only the beginning of a much larger transformation in how India does business.
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