Online grocery delivery startup Zepto has become the latest to join the growing list of Indian unicorns as it raised $200 million (Rs 1,652 crore) as part of its Series E funding round led by global asset manager StepStone Group.
The round, which valued Zepto at $1.4 billion, also saw investments from Goodwater Capital as well as existing investors like Nexus Venture Partners, Glade Brook Capital and Lachy Groom, among others.
Avendus was the exclusive financial advisor to Zepto for the transaction.
Prior to this, the company had raised about $360 million in funding across multiple funding rounds since its inception. It had last raised $200 million in its Series D funding round led by American technology startup accelerator Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund at a valuation of $900 million.
Zepto claims that the majority of its dark stores are fully Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) positive. It also claimed that the company’s burn has reduced significantly, and with this trajectory, the company will be fully Ebitda positive in 12 to 15 months. It is planning to go public by 2025 as a profitable company.
To be sure, the quick commerce platform reported a net loss of Rs 390.4 crore in the financial year 2022 on a standalone basis, as per data from VCCEdge, the data intelligence platform of VCCircle. The company is yet to file its financial numbers for FY23 with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
“Even with this capital, we want to maintain our discipline, avoid complacency, and push hard to hit EBITDA positivity. In that journey, the biggest drivers of P&L improvement for us are based on technology and product,” said Kaivalya Vohra, co-founder and chief technology officer of Zepto.
The Mumbai-headquartered firm also claimed that the company has grown its sales by 300% year-on-year and will likely achieve $1 billion in annualized sales within the next few quarters.
Founded by Vohra and Aadit Palicha, Zepto runs a network of ‘cloud stores’ or micro-warehouses from where it provides the home delivery of groceries and essentials within a few minutes.
The two-year-old startup operates in the quick commerce market, and pits against the likes of Swiggy’s Instamart and Zomato’s Blinkit.