Zepto, a competitor to Blinkit, erstwhile Grofers, was founded by two teenage Stanford dropouts in April 2021. The newly born startup now has a valuation, standing at $570 million by marquee investors of the Indian startup ecosystem.
Zepto founders Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra also founded another startup- Kiranakart, but they had to shut down the operations in March 2021, and in the next month, they came up with Zepto which currently delivers 2,500 products in 10 minutes flat, just like Blinkit.
The company, today, announced that they have raised $100 million in a Series C round led by Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund. Existing investors — Glade Brook, Nexus, Breyer Capital, Lachy Groom, Global Founders Capital, Contrary Capital also participated in the round.
Zepto earlier had raised $60 million, at a valuation of $225 million.
The organization claims to have spread its reach from Mumbai to Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurgaon, Chennai, and Hyderabad. The firm is currently looking to expand into Kolkata and Pune.
Swiggy, which came up with its InstaMart service in 2020, has decided to invest $700 million in the domain and offer 5-minute delivery.
Meanwhile, Grofers rebranded its entire billion-dollar business to Blinkit to send a message across the market that it has shifted its focus on 10-minute delivery. The company decided to close its operations in 18 cities and focus on 12 cities for now.
“Investors are consistently choosing to back Zepto because of our best-in-class execution. This is giving us incredible momentum – we’re growing at a phenomenal rate, customers are loving the product experience, our core unit economics are strong, and we have one of the best startup teams in India today. Suffice it to say, I’m excited about what’s to come,” Aadit Palicha, co-founder and chief executive (CEO) of Zepto, said.