Youngest billionaire to richest NRIs: Highlights of the Hurun India Rich List 2024

<keyword id="19939134" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Zepto" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Zepto" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Zepto">Zepto</keyword>, a popular quick-commerce platform which rivals Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart, has secured <keyword id="22972597" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="USD-340-million" source="keywords">USD 340 million</keyword> in a follow-on financing round led by <keyword id="20231170" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="General-Catalyst" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="General Catalyst" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="General Catalyst">General Catalyst</keyword>, pushing the Mumbai-based startup's <keyword id="19896943" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="valuation" source="keywords">valuation</keyword> to $5 billion. This fresh infusion of capital comes shortly after Zepto raised $665 million in June 2024, which had then valued the company at $3.6 billion—almost triple its worth from the previous year. The latest round was spearheaded by General Catalyst, with new investors Dragon Fund and Epiq Capital also joining the fray. Existing backers, including <keyword id="22972598" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="StepStone" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="StepStone" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="StepStone">StepStone</keyword>, Lightspeed, DST, and Contrary, have further increased their investments in Zepto. <keyword id="20291499" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aadit-Palicha" source="keywords">Aadit Palicha</keyword>, Co-founder and CEO of Zepto, explained that the decision to pursue this follow-on financing was driven by two key factors. "First, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to bring <keyword id="21957857" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Neeraj-Arora" source="keywords">Neeraj Arora</keyword> from General Catalyst on board as our lead investor. Second, strengthening our balance sheet is a strategic move as we continue to show strong growth and operational efficiency," Palicha said according to PTI. Zepto is rapidly expanding its network of dark stores, which currently stands at 370, according to a report in The Hindu. The company plans to increase this to approximately 700 stores by March 2025, thereby strengthening its presence across the top 20 cities in India. In June, Zepto reported crossing the $1 billion mark in annualized Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). Founded in 2021 by Stanford University dropouts Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, Zepto has rapidly grown into a leading player in the quick commerce sector, drawing significant attention from investors and industry watchers alike.

Zepto secures USD 340 million in latest funding round, boosting valuation to USD 5 billion

In 2024, grocery shopping is a thing of the past in India. Delivery platforms like <keyword id="19939135" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Swiggy-Instamart" source="keywords">Swiggy Instamart</keyword>, <keyword id="20069203" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Blinkit" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Blinkit" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Blinkit">Blinkit</keyword> and <keyword id="19939134" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zepto" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Zepto" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Zepto">Zepto</keyword> have made life easier for millions of people by delivering regular household items at their doorsteps. Ran out of salt? Order it online. Ran out of flour? Order it online. Need some stationery items for your kid’s school project? It can be delivered too. The list is endless. <h2><keyword id="21384253" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Zepto-CEO" source="keywords">Zepto CEO</keyword> compares it with Zomato</h2> Zepto, which is newer when compared to Swiggy and Blinkit, is a popular choice in many areas. And its CEO and co-founder <keyword id="22736526" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aadit-Palica" source="keywords">Aadit Palica</keyword> feels that the company is in the stage where <keyword id="19904608" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Amazon" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> was in 1990s or early 2000s. While speaking at the Moneycontrol Startup Conclave 2024 on Friday, Palicha drew a bold comparison between his company’s current trajectory and that of Amazon during the late 1990s and early 2000s. He added that with the right execution, Zepto could potentially achieve a valuation between $50 billion and $80 billion, positioning itself as a leader in the global quick commerce sector. With that being said, Palicha is keenly aware that success isn’t guaranteed. “It is largely just execution,” he noted, talking about the importance of flawless operational strategy in turning potential into reality. He also acknowledged the history of companies that had the right ingredients for success but failed to execute, highlighting Zepto’s commitment to staying focused on its core business for the foreseeable future. Over the past year, Zepto has been on an aggressive fundraising streak, securing significant investments that have fuelled its growth. In August 2023, Zepto raised $231 million at a valuation of $1.4 billion, marking its entry into the unicorn club. But that was just the beginning. The startup recently closed another funding round, pulling in $665 million and boosting its valuation to $3.6 billion. The momentum doesn’t stop there. Zepto has attracted further interest from investors, with discussions underway for an additional $250 million in funding. This new round, which could grow to as much as $400 million, is expected to push the company’s valuation to around $4.6 billion. <h2>When Palicha said Zepto will be bigger than D-Mart </h2> This isn’t the first time that Palicha has made a bold prediction about Zepto. Last month, Palicha had said that Zepto would be bigger than D-Mart in the near future. Speaking at the JIIF Foundation Day event in Delhi, Palicha had pointed out that despite D-Mart’s impressive $30 billion valuation, the retail behemoth is currently only 4.5 times larger than Zepto in terms of sales. "D-Mart is a $30 billion company, and they are only 4.5 times our size in sales. If we maintain our current pace, growing 2-3 times each year, we could potentially surpass them in the next 18-24 months," Palicha had said.

Zepto CEO compares his startup to Amazon, says it can be worth 80 billion if things go right

<ul><li>Existing and new investors invest $200 mn in the quick commerce company ahead of its public listing plans.</li><li>The Series E round was led by <keyword id="18533825" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="stepstone-group" source="Orion">StepStone Group</keyword>, which is its first direct investment in an Indian company.</li><li>Startup intends to become cash flow positive ahead of its public listing in 2025. </li></ul> <keyword id="2023017" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="unicorns" source="Orion">Unicorns</keyword> are rare animals even in the fiction world and during a <keyword id="6412154" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="funding-winter" source="Orion">funding winter</keyword> they become rarer. At a time when startups are left in the cold by venture capital funds, <keyword id="12437554" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="zepto" source="Orion">Zepto</keyword> has become India’s 84th unicorn with its latest fundraise. India had 83 unicorns at the start of the year but several startups have lost that tag with down rounds and cuts in valuation. The quick commerce player, started by two teenagers two years ago, has raised $200 million through a Series E round at a valuation of $1.4 billion. The latest round is entirely primary. The agenda is to build a good capital base ahead of a potential listing in 2025. With this round, the startup has brought on board a bunch of new investors. This round was led by StepStone Group and this investment into Zepto is their first direct investment in an Indian company). Additionally, Goodwater Capital, a consumer-focused venture capital firm based in California, joined the round as a new investor. Notably, existing investors, like Nexus Venture Partners, Glade Brook Capital, Lachy Groom and more, doubled down on their investments in Zepto with meaningful follow-on investments. Says <keyword id="12778880" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="aadit-palicha" source="Orion">Aadit Palicha</keyword>, Co-founder &amp; CEO of Zepto, said, “This business is about execution and we are succeeding because our execution is strong. Our culture of deep frugality and worshiping customers has gotten us here, but there is still so much for us to achieve. We are in this to build a generational company and it truly feels like this is just the beginning.” The startup is looking at becoming EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) positive over the next 12-18 months. And by early 2015, Zepto is looking to launch its initial public offering and take the company public. Earlier this month, Meesho, a homegrown e-commerce marketplace, became the first horizontal e-commerce company in India to turn profitable. In May, the startup retrenched 251 people as it was looking to cut costs. It had earlier handed pink slips to 300 employees in August last year. Talking to Business Insider, Palicha said that not only does the company seek to become EBITDA positive but Zepto will be cash flow positive by the time it hits public markets. Even though Zepto is pursuing profitable growth, it has not resorted to any retrenchment to cut costs. In a bear market like this, Palicha said that they learned that there is no either or when it comes to growth and profits. The current funding winter has taught these founders many things early on. Palicha says: “We have become better entrepreneurs in a bear market.The quality of decisions we took were not the same as they are today.” Like many startups Zepto too seems to have realised that it cannot burn cash to grow revenues. The company has said that its cash burn is near zero, the cost of acquiring customers is down 70% compared to last year. Zepto is present in seven cities right now. The startup’s revenues are to the tune of $50-60 mn per month. The startup plans to enter new cities once the existing ones become profitable. <keyword id="12442402" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="kaivalya-vohra" source="Orion">Kaivalya Vohra</keyword>, Co-founder &amp; CTO of Zepto, says, “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&amp;L improvement for us are based on technology and product. We are building one of the best supply chain product stacks in the country today and we are investing heavily in customer-facing product as well. This technical excellence is in our DNA, and I’m excited about the next phase of building.”

What Funding Winter? Zepto raises $200 mn to become the first unicorn of 2023

<ul><li>Ramesh Bafna joins <keyword id="12437554" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="zepto" source="Orion">Zepto</keyword> as chief financial officer of quick commerce startup Zepto.</li><li>Key mandate is to take the company public in two years and make the company EBITDA positive before that.</li><li>Zepto claims metrics are strong and several of its dark stores are already profitable.</li></ul>The finance function is inevitably the most important function in any start-up, but when you’re talking about capital raise and public listing, the chief financial officer is the captain of the ship. With an eye on public listing two years down the line, quick commerce start-up, Zepto, has roped in Ramesh Bafna as the chief financial officer. <keyword id="12778880" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="aadit-palicha" source="Orion">Aadit Palicha</keyword>, CEO and Co-founder of Zepto told Business Insider, “We are at an inflexion point in our journey and are confident that we can go public in two years time. In this respect we are excited to have Ramesh join us and his core mandate will be to take the company public.” Ramesh Bafna has held leadership roles across finance, audit and business in companies like Wipro, Flipkart and Myntra. Prior to his new gig at Zepto, Bafna has worked with CoinSwitch and EvenFlow as the CFO in both these assignments. According to Bafna, “Zepto has made industry-leading progress on profitability, while continue to grow fast. To take the company public in 2-3 years, my focus will be to build a strong controllership infrastructure, bring the company's compliance to the next level, and most importantly, get the overall business to EBITDA positive, which I believe is possible in a reasonable timeframe.” Zepto was born at the peak of the pandemic with a proposition to home-deliver food and groceries to consumers. The company was founded by two teenagers in 2021 - Kaivalya Vohra and Aadit Palicha. The company, which plans to take on e-commerce biggies over time, will need capital to further fuel its growth. Palicha says that a large number of Zepto’s stores are profitable and that the financial metrics of the company are very strong. To this effect, the IPO planning process will be key for the company and its CFO. The funding winter that set in last year has made it hard for start-ups to raise capital. India saw a massive inflow of capital during the pandemic, but funding in the March quarter of this calendar year dropped 75%. In the March quarter start-ups have raised only $2.8 bn compare to $11.8 bn last year in the same period. Funding volumes have shrunk primarily because investors are not keen on late stage start-ups. Late stage funding has declined in the March quarter by 79%. Zepto’s Co-founder and CEO, Aadit Palicha, also said, "Ramesh is a best-in-class e-commerce CFO and he will build a best-in-class Finance team at Zepto. Through disciplined execution, Zepto is delivering incredible progress on growth and profitability. To take Zepto public in 2-3 years, we believe we need an incredible CFO and Ramesh is the right person for the job. I’m looking forward to this journey of building a generational company with him onboard!”

Zepto preps for public listing in 2 years; Brings in Ramesh Bafna as CFO to lead IPO process

<ul><li>Anti-hangover shots, hoola hoops and Gangajal were some unusual items Indians searched for, to be delivered via <keyword id="16045156" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="online-grocery-app" source="Orion">online grocery app</keyword>. </li><li>Daily essentials like milk, bread, butter, curd and onion were the most searched items on <keyword id="12437554" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="zepto" source="Orion">Zepto</keyword>. </li><li>The platform got about 120 orders per minute for ice-cream, chips and soft drinks. </li><li>Diapers outsold condoms by over three times, on the platform.</li></ul><keyword id="16045155" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="pyjama-nadas" source="Orion">Pyjama nadas</keyword>, used to fasten Indian-style pants were among the most unusual items that Indians were searching for on Zepto, the quick commerce company said in a report released on Thursday. <keyword id="1285379" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="cowdung" source="Orion">Cowdung</keyword> cakes, Gangajal (holy water), anti-hangover shots, hoola hoops were the other bizarre items that Indians searched for on the app in 2022. While these were exceptions, daily essentials like milk, bread, butter, curd and onion were amongst the top most searched items in 2022, on the app which promises to deliver goods within ten minutes. The most popular items however remained comfort foods like ice-cream and chips. The platform got about 120 orders per minute for ice-cream, chips and soft drinks. And another a hundred orders per minute for juices, salads, and organic foods. A user from Mumbai placed as many as 1,988 orders last year in 2022 — which is the highest number of orders. “2022 has been a thrilling year for Zepto. We are proud to have delivered every customer promise with excellence- be it consistency in delivery times, product and tech experience, the quality of our assortment, and introducing new categories and products that excite and cater to every big or small customer need,” said <keyword id="12778880" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="aadit-palicha" source="Orion">Aadit Palicha</keyword>, co-founder and CEO at Zepto. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="3 diapers sold per every condom" comment="subhead" text="3 diapers sold per every condom">3 diapers sold per every condom</cmsannotation> While groceries continue to be the most ordered category, there’s been a steady growth in home utility, hygiene, self-care and electronics segments as well on Zepto. The platform also discovered a few interesting buying habits of Indians. For instance, the platform sold three diapers for every condom every day. The demand for ice-cream in summers was equivalent to that in winters, and four tons of meat items were sold everyday. “We’re also focussing on making their entire experience – right from placing orders to receiving the deliveries – as seamless as possible. It is humbling to see so many Indian customers make the best use of Zepto’s offerings through orders for all their needs – no matter how distinct,” says Amritansu Nanda, chief marketing officer at Zepto. In 2022, the highest value of a particular order from Noida peaked at over ₹23,000, while a customer from Mumbai cumulatively spent close to ₹9 lakh on Zepto orders throughout the year. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/ajay-devgns-rudra-akshay-kumars-cuttputli-among-most-watched-ott-originals-in-2022/slidelist/96943388.cms">Ajay Devgn’s Rudra, Akshay Kumar’s Cuttputli among most-watched OTT originals in 2022</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/retail/news/retail-inflation-falls-to-one-year-low-of-5-72-in-december/articleshow/96942600.cms">Retail inflation falls to one year low of 5.72% in December</a>

Pyajama naada to hangover shots among things Indians need in 10 mins, according to Zepto

<ul><li>One year old quick commerce player <keyword id="12437554" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="zepto" source="Orion">Zepto</keyword> is making <keyword id="18635" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon" source="Orion">Amazon</keyword> and Flipkart look like legacy companies with delivery times of more than a day.</li><li>Analysts believe that Amazon in India has a weaker value proposition in 'New' commerce, where Zepto &amp; Meesho dominate.</li><li>Zepto is looking to grab market share from Amazon in multiple categories it dominates.</li></ul>When Steve Jobs delivered his commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, never would he have imagined that 15 years later two 17-year old boys would follow his footsteps and opt out of the coveted computer science programme at the same college to pursue their entrepreneurial dream. Aadit <keyword id="12442400" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="palicha" source="Orion">Palicha</keyword> and Kaivalya Vohra were crazy enough to believe in 2020 they could transform the online grocery delivery market in 2020 and they actually did it with Zepto, a quick commerce player that has created a new paradigm in online commerce. Valued at $900 mn, newbie Zepto is now challenging the Big Tech players on delivery time and formats. Despite building a soonicorn in less than a year, Palicha is almost always expecting to be dissed for being that “idiot kid.” He starts the interview by saying: “I have come to a point where I like it when people say something is bonkers, then I take particular interest in it. I was laughed at during interviews when I wanted to hire senior people. I used to care because I was young, but I got hammered so many times that I stopped caring.” <div type="image" title="Aadit Palicha CEO and Co founder, Zepto" msid="94400605" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Aadit Palicha CEO and Co founder, Zepto&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The story of Vohra and Palicha is as crazy it sounds – a couple of kids who started out to solve the problem of grocery delivery at the peak of the pandemic and ended up convincing angel investors and venture capital firms to bet $360 mn on their “crazy” idea. Welcome to the fantasy world of startups, where ideas rule the roost and age is just a number. In less than a year, Zepto is making Amazon and Flipkart look like legacy companies with delivery times of a day or more. Online commerce was born in the desktop era and while it has evolved in the last few years, it continues to deliver at the same pace as it did years ago, giving an opportunity to new commerce players like Zepto to solve problems with better formats and faster fulfillment. On-demand commerce is the latest to disrupt the online cart in India, dominated largely by the big players. A report by global investment bank Bernstein says that even though India is Amazon’s biggest and fastest growing overseas market: “It also faces immense competitive pressure in fast growing categories, a weaker value proposition in 'New' commerce, limited traction in tier 2/3 cities, and an unfavorable regulatory environment for outsiders.” The pandemic has helped germinate disruptive ideas and newbies are taking the game several notches higher by doing what nobody ever imagined – taking e-commerce beyond the big cities and delivery of fresh and groceries within minutes. Zepto is not content being a soonicorn, with an eye on profitability the Q-commerce player is already experimenting with private labels in food, high-margin categories like personal care and 24/7 deliveries of hot snacks and hot beverages. Confident of where the company is going, Palicha, who is the CEO, says the company is on track to clock one million orders a day with annualised sales of $1 bn by October 2023. Refusing to call it the next Amazon, Suvir Sujan, Co-founder and Managing Director of Nexus Venture Partners, says, “On demand commerce is a new paradigm in online delivery. I would love to say it is the next Amazon, but let’s first add more categories and get customers to come back for more. But what is more than groceries, time will tell.” <div type="image" title="Suvir Sujan, Co-founder and Managing Director of Nexus Venture Partners" msid="94400640" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Suvir Sujan, Co-founder and Managing Director of Nexus Venture Partners&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The Early Days of Zepto At the headquarters of Zepto in suburban Mumbai, Palicha warmly greets his guests with a smile and Diet Coke from his mini refrigerator. There’s no nervous stammering, as one would expect from a high school graduate. Clearly two years is long enough time for a teenager to “grow up” and Palicha has come a long way from the days when he wore a green tee with Kirana Kart splayed all over it to deliver groceries to families in Mumbai’s suburban neighbourhood called Sher-e-Punjab. The journey of these two college dropouts began at the start of the pandemic when they decided to take a year out of Stanford and give their entrepreneurial dream a chance. <div type="image" title="Kaivalya Vohra, Co founder and CIO, Zepto" msid="94400684" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Kaivalya Vohra, Co founder and CIO, Zepto&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The first battle was to come back to India from Dubai, where they both did their schooling at Gems World Academy. Jumping on to the Vande Bharat programme rolled out by the government to bring Indians back home during the pandemic, Vohra and Palicha boarded their flight back to Mumbai with a suitcase full of start-up ideas. Upon landing they decided to shack-up at Vohra’s family-run bed and breakfast in Andheri East as nobody wanted to rent an apartment to two teenage boys. In the early days, they picked up groceries from kirana stores and delivered them to their customers’ doorstep, which helped them understand route planning, time taken to deliver and order fulfillment issues. The biggest lesson, however, was that they could not make money by running errands. It was at this time that they realised that they had to own the entire fulfillment process, if they wanted to build a profitable business. Picking up groceries from kirana stores and delivering them would not yield them the requisite margins. Those were the early days and they started clocking 2000 orders a day through WhatsApp groups and the early rendition of their app called KiranaKart. <div type="image" title="Burn rate has come down 5X on a per-order basis" msid="94400735" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Burn rate has come down 5X on a per-order basis&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The Birth of Zepto The model of quick commerce soon started taking shape in their heads, as their retention metrics showed that deliveries within a 1.8 km radius reached within minutes and that helped them retain customers. The other pain point that customers had was incorrect items in the cart. Vohra and Palicha started applying their minds on solving these problems to improve retention. Explains Palicha, “We had a model where we were experimenting with hyper local delivery and that got us 2000 orders a week. Kaivalya and I were delivering ourselves in the beginning. There was confusion over orders and erratic delivery timelines was an issue. Our first learning was if we had a lot of SKUs then it would help.” The second issue the duo encountered was around quality. “We looked at cohorts and found delivery time of over an hour was an issue,” adds Palicha. By this time, they were encouraged by friends to apply to YCombinator and once they got through the programme, they had the confidence they needed to take the plunge. Two years ago YCom gave the two boys $125,000 and some other angel investors put in the rest. They hit the sweet spot when they cut delivery time to below 20 minutes. “Customers started interacting frequently when we delivered in less time,” explains Palicha. That’s when they decided to scale. Nexus Partners Boards The Bus Having worked on the early iterations of the app and having learned from their mistakes, Palicha and Vohra set out to attract the bigger investors for their startup. Armed with their learnings and coaching from YCombinator, the duo were ready to face a proper venture capital firm with their own unique quick commerce proposition. Recalling their early days, Kaivalya Vohra, who is the CTO of Zepto, says: “We decided to drop out of Stanford and work on a startup that would solve a consumer problem. We decided to build an app in 2020 called KiranaKart to deliver groceries from local stores to consumers. That’s where we got our early learning from.” Globally, quick commerce is an established business but the focus is largely consumer categories like ice, cigarettes and alcohol that typically people tend to order from Q-Commerce players. The need for fresh produce is met by organized retail players in developed markets with a store being present in every block almost. In India, however, both these markets are fragmented and quality is an issue. So when Suvir Sujan of Nexus Venture Partners told Palicha that their model of kirana store deliveries would not work, Palicha agreed. Recalls Sujan, “He recognised what was not working and was assessing it to change the model. When I talked about building different layers of the business, he was able to articulate it very well. They had the technology chops and also had the maturity to know that they would need a senior team to build the business.” Within days of receiving funding from Nexus, Palicha started interviewing senior professionals to build the team. Few wanted to work for a company that did not even have a name and was led by a 19-year old. Eventually, the team that Palicha has built is like him, people who are driven by the passion to solve problems and disrupt existing models. Says Amritanshu Nanda, the chief marketing officer of Zepto, “What excited me was the vision and passion of the two founders and the massive disruption we were aiming to create in the fresh and grocery segment by reducing delivery to under 30 minutes from one day. My first conversation with them ended at 11 pm at night and soon after i walked out and called family and discussed with them.” It helped that Nanda has always worked for start-ups and quirky founders since 2008. <div type="image" title="Amritanshu Nanda, the chief marketing officer of Zepto" msid="94400818" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Amritanshu Nanda, the chief marketing officer of Zepto&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The Business Of Quick Commerce Quick commerce is more about using technology to solve problems rather than just cutting time to deliver the goods. A visit to Zepto’s dark store in Andheri East helps understand the business model better. Palicha says that the early days taught them how to delight customers. He explains: “We embodied this product and we felt it would be great. When we saw customers getting delighted, we felt it would be big. We became the product in a sense.” Zepto’s dark store in Andheri East resembles the trading floors of stock exchanges of yester years, where the outcry system was prevalent for buying and selling shares. At the entrance, packers awaiting their orders to be assigned to them stand, while at the other end are delivery partners who are waiting to pick up the deliveries assigned to them. Each time an order is assigned, a bell tolls and during peak demand it tolls endlessly. A big screen shows order numbers and time taken by each packer to finish packing the orders. As soon as an order is placed, packers are assigned on their handheld devices, which they pack in 76 seconds. Placing of products is an important factor, and since bread, eggs and poultry products are high demand categories they are placed right at the entrance. The handheld device reads the inventory each time a product flies off the shelf, so that the warehouse knows what needs to be replenished. Clearly, there’s a science behind delivering in 20 minutes and it only begins with route planning. In order to stock products that customers typically order, it is important to stock just enough products for which it is necessary to be able to predict demand. Sujan explains, “A lot of data analysis is required to predict demand in a hyperlocal environment. This data has to be fed back to the inventory management systems to ensure a high inventory turn. The whole value chain is important and for that demand prediction is important.” The dark stores are compact as the inventory velocity is high. Palicha and his team refuse to spell out the exact number of dark stores they have across India at the moment. Once Nexus was on board, putting the plan in place was easier and both Palicha and Vohra got down to hiring key talent, which entailed getting the best minds on board. Since delivering groceries was not profitable, they had to put in place the best supply chain experts to begin with. But hiring wasn’t easy as few senior professionals wanted to work for an 18 year old kid. Recalls Palicha, “When we told people what we wanted to build, people told us we had lost it. You can never deliver between 10- 20 minutes. If it was possible then why had nobody done it.” The first couple of months in early to mid 2021 was spent hiring the right talent. Zepto sources its entire fresh category from farmers and consumer products from companies. It is experimenting with high value food items like dry fruits and private labels. <div type="image" title="800% QoQ revenue growth" msid="94400980" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;800% QoQ revenue growth&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The Road Ahead Having cracked the delivery of groceries and fresh produce in the on-demand commerce space, Zepto will look at applying the model to multiple other categories that have traditionally been dominated by the likes of Amazon, which include pharmacy, fashion accessories, cafe, electronics and personal care. The company is looking to take market share from Amazon in multiple categories it dominates. All these categories can be delivered in much less time with assurance of quality with easy returns. Can the newbie build the same experience in multiple categories? Answers Palicha: “KV and I have the ambition to create the next generation of e-commerce in urban India.” Clearly, this story is far from over. SEE ALSO <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/online-e-commerce-player-meesho-is-the-new-crorepati-factory/articleshow/94399429.cms">Online e-commerce player Meesho is the new crorepati factory</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/moonlighting-right-or-wrong/articleshow/94400817.cms">Moonlighting – Right or Wrong?</a>

The Zepto Boys: Competition that Amazon never saw coming

Recouping the dent caused by the <keyword id="20016892" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hindenburg-Research" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Hindenburg Research" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Hindenburg Research">Hindenburg Research</keyword> report, <keyword id="19929098" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gautam-Adani" source="keywords">Gautam Adani</keyword>'s <keyword id="22964360" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="networth" source="keywords">networth</keyword> shot up 95 per cent to Rs 11.6 lakh crore last year, which helped him replace <keyword id="19916798" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mukesh-Ambani" source="keywords">Mukesh Ambani</keyword> to become the <keyword id="22961446" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Richest-Indian" source="keywords">richest Indian</keyword>, a report said on Thursday. <keyword id="19896380" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance-Industries" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Reliance Industries" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Reliance Industries">Reliance Industries</keyword> Chairman and Managing Director <keyword id="19898589" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ambani" source="keywords">Ambani</keyword>'s overall networth increased by 25 per cent to Rs 10.14 lakh crore, as per the 2024 <keyword id="21075617" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hurun-India-Rich-List" source="keywords">Hurun India Rich List</keyword>. In 2023's report, <keyword id="19898586" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Adani" source="keywords">Adani</keyword>'s wealth declined by 57 per cent to Rs 4.74 lakh crore, and Ambani was way ahead with a fortune of Rs 8.08 lakh crore. It can be noted that Adani's networth declined sharply following various allegations levelled by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research. The conglomerate has denied all the allegations. In the 2014 edition, Hurun had pegged Adani's fortunes at Rs 44,000 crore, which made him the tenth richest Indian then. Shiv Nadar and family of HCL gained one spot to be the third richest with a networth of Rs 3.14 lakh crore, while Serum Institute of India's Cyrus Poonawalla slipped by one notch to the fourth position with a networth of Rs 2.89 lakh crore in 2024. Sun Pharmaceuticals' Dilip Shanghvi continued his ascent on the list, securing the fifth richest tag against sixth last year with a networth of Rs 2.50 lakh crore. Radha Vembu of Zoho was the wealthiest among self-made women with a fortune of Rs 47,500 crore, while Zepto's co-founders Kaivalya Vohra and Aadit Palicha, who are in their early 20s, were the youngest on the list with a networth of Rs 3,600 crore and Rs 4,300 crore, respectively. The list, which captures Indians having a networth of over Rs 1,000 crore, grew by 220 individuals to 1,539 people in 2024. The cumulative wealth has seen a 46 per cent jump in the year. Actor Shah Rukh Khan made his debut on the list with a fortune estimated at Rs 7,300 crore, which was much higher than business partner Juhi Chawla with Rs 4,600 crore networth secured second place among the entertainers. Interestingly, 16 professionals also made it to the list with Arista Networks' chief executive Jayshree Ullal being the wealthiest at Rs 32,100 crore and followed by D-mart chief executive Ignatius Navil Noronha at Rs 6,900 crore, according to the list. Gera Developments' Kumar Pritamdas Gera's wealth grew the fastest at 566 per cent in the 2024 list, while Ambani and Adani had the biggest growth by quantum, the list said.

Adani replaces Ambani to become wealthiest Indian with a net worth of Rs 11.6 lakh crores

Quick commerce company <keyword id="19939134" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Zepto" source="keywords">Zepto</keyword> on Friday said it has raised <keyword id="22130274" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="USD-665-million" source="keywords">USD 665 million</keyword> (about Rs 5,560 crore) in the latest funding round that valued the firm at USD 3.6 billion, almost triple than its worth a year back. The massive fundraise comes less than a year after the Mumbai-based startup raised USD 235 million at a valuation of USD 1.4 billion. The funding round saw participation from new investors like Avenir, Lightspeed, and Avra, alongside existing investors Glade Brook, Nexus, and StepStone, Goodwater, and Lachy Groom. "We've gone from 0 to 1 billion-plus in sales, or GMV, in 29 months, that is faster than any other internet company before us... Even on a base of over a billion dollars at this point, we are growing 100 per cent-plus year on year. And that for us is one of the big drivers of this fundraise," Zepto co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha told PTI. Attributing the growth to the performance of the quick commerce firm, the young entrepreneur said, "This is largely because of the input excellence we've built across the supply chain. "Whether it is sourcing excellence, mother hub efficiency, line haul utilisation, or our last mile, the innovation that we've done, or forecasting, we're in this place where even as we've been able to grow, we've been able to drive efficiency to get the business to pretty much close to full operating cash flow positive today." He said the overall business is close to operating at break-even cash flow. Nearly 75 per cent of the company's stores are fully EBITDA positive as of May 2024, he said. "Over the next 12-18 months, although it might fluctuate, but we'll still be pretty close to operating cash flow positive, and the idea is to keep in that direction, get the business to a place where we can list next 9-12 months," he said. Zepto co-founder and CTO <keyword id="12442402" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kaivalya-Vohra" source="Orion">Kaivalya Vohra</keyword> said the firm plans to hire top talent across engineering, product, growth, finance, operations, and category management. "If you are looking for a high growth, high meritocracy and high intensity culture where you can convert hard work and ambition into disproportionate career growth, Zepto is the place for you," he said.

Zepto raises USD 665 million; Valuation nearly triples to USD 3.6 billion

<ul><li>Low ticket size and low margin can never be solved through forced low delivery cost, said <keyword id="2988161" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ashneer-grover" source="Orion">Ashneer Grover</keyword> on 10-minute grocery delivery. </li><li>Hari Menon, the CEO of BigBasket said that consumers never wanted quick delivery, and that it was thrust on them. </li><li>Legacy e-commerce companies who have not generated significant net profit have no authority to make remarks on quick commerce, said Aadit Palicha, the co-founder of Zepto. </li></ul>A war of words has been raging between the heads of quick commerce companies and their non-quick counterparts in the last few weeks. Entrepreneur and startup investor Ashneer Grover too joined in the conversation — insisting that 10-minute quick commerce delivery has no economics. He was commenting on the Blinkit (by Zomato) delivery personnel strike. “Low ticket size and low margin can never be solved through forced low delivery cost,” Grover tweeted summarising Zomato’s Blinkit journey in three steps — 90 Min (bull run) —&gt; Next day (bear run) —&gt; 10 Min (bull run) —&gt; ?? Quick commerce sector has players like Zepto, Reliance-backed Dunzo, Zomato’s Blinkit and Swiggy’s Instamart. While most of them provide 10-minute deliveries, others too offer lightning-fast deliveries of a wide range of groceries — catching the imagination of consumers. However, quick commerce has had its set of detractors, and recently Hari Menon, the chief executive officer (CEO) of BigBasket stirred up the controversy with his comments against quick commerce. While BigBasket has its quick commerce avatar called BigBasketNow, it delivers its groceries in 30 minutes. ‘Qcommerce was thrust on customers’ Grover’s negative opinion on the economics of quick commerce delivery has another backer. Last week at the Sharrp Summit, Menon said that consumers never wanted quick delivery, and that it was thrust on them. A sensible business case involves 15-30 minutes to make a delivery, he added. “Quick commerce has certain dynamics required for unit economics to work, which means you need a high density of orders, it will be cut off at some point. The Bigbasket model will scale, but quick commerce without density doesn't work,” <a href="https://www.cnbctv18.com/business/companies/consumers-never-wanted-10-minute-delivery-says-bigbaskets-co-founder-16394831.htm">Menon said</a>. Menon’s comments had irked Aadit Palicha, the co-founder of Zepto and a Stanford dropout, who started the business during the pandemic when he was 19 years old. He hit back at Menon at the very summit saying that legacy e-commerce companies who have not generated significant net profit have no authority to make remarks on quick commerce’s sustainability. Palicha, who is preparing to take the company public in the next two years,<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/zepto-preps-for-public-listing-in-2-years-brings-in-ramesh-bafna-as-cfo-to-lead-ipo-process/articleshow/99514143.cms"> had told Business Insider India</a> in a recent interview that a large part of his ‘dark stores’ are profitable, and the financial metrics of the company are very strong. Indians take to quick commerce According to Redseer, Indian consumers are taking to quick commerce, and the adoption is much better than in other countries. India has a quick commerce penetration of 13% versus 7% in China and 3% in EU, respectively. The current market size of quick commerce in India is $5.5 billion – and as of now caters to only 1% of the total domestic grocery market. Redseer also says that the total addressable market (TAM) of quick commerce is at $45 billion. “Emerging as one of the fastest growing e-commerce models, quick commerce is fundamentally changing consumer purchase behaviour and the grocery retail market on the whole by providing faster delivery options (in as little as ten minutes) as well as a more convenience-driven shopping experience,” said the Redseer report. Quick commerce players who have set up dark stores that aid quick deliveries, cater to the mid to upper middle-class consumers, and also offer an eclectic mix of products —- in order to stay ahead of the competition from local kiranas. As of now however, around 70% of all quick commerce purchases are top-up orders. Many platforms have informed that milk, eggs and more are the most searched and purchased items for fast deliveries. Stockup purchases like staples and packaged foods are either purchased offline or through online e-commerce. Apart from the time and the economics, the war of words around e-commerce is about average order value (AOV). Many players are trying to push for it by offering free delivery for larger sized orders. A few services like Instamart charge different delivery prices for faster delivery of services. Moreover, the funding winter which has been taking the wind off the sails for most startups has also had its effect on quick commerce players. Moreover, grocery delivery – fast or otherwise – itself is becoming a tougher business to be in. JioMart Express, which offers 90-minute deliveries, has recently shut this service. At the same time last year, fast delivery service Ola Dash folded up. This, however, can be a blessing in disguise, say analysts. “Competitive intensity has slowed down in quick commerce, which gives incumbents room to build scale moats; and the expectation that the life cycle value of the incremental transacting user in quick commerce could be significantly better than in food delivery at the current stage,” says a recent report by JM Financial. When the dust settles on the war of words around quick commerce, it will be incumbent on the existing players to prove their detractors wrong by delivering profitable businesses. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/samosas-versus-burgers-the-great-indian-dilemma/articleshow/99488590.cms">Samosas versus burgers: The Great Indian Dilemma</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/keshub-mahindra-the-man-who-played-in-a-role-in-building-indias-auto-industry/articleshow/99425922.cms">Keshub Mahindra: The man who thought impossible is possible</a>

The Big Fight: Ashneer Grover wades into controversy around 10-minute delivery

<ul><li><keyword id="12437554" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="zepto" source="Orion">Zepto</keyword> is now valued at a whopping $900 million, after raising $200 million.</li><li>The funding round was led by Y Combinator Continuity fund and Kaiser Permanente.</li><li>The company has already hired 1000 employees so far and plans to hire 1000 more this year</li></ul>Quick commerce startup Zepto — founded by two 19-year-old Stanford dropouts nine months ago — is now valued at a whopping $900 million. The company, on Monday night, announced that it has raised $200 million. The funding round was led by Y Combinator Continuity fund and Kaiser Permanente. All key existing investors, including Nexus Venture Partners, Glade Brook Capital and Lachy Groom have also participated in Zepto’s latest Series D round. The company has raised close to $350 million to date and was valued at $560 million in April December 2021. <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; table-layout: fixed; width: 468pt;" class="redcator-table-advance"><colgroup></colgroup><col /><col /><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Month </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Event </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">April 2021 </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Founded </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">November 2021 </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Raised $60 million, at $225 million valuation </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">December 2021 </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Raised $100 million at the valuation of $570 million </td></tr></tbody><tbody></tbody><tbody></tbody><tbody></tbody></table>Source: Zepto Zepto’s chief executive officer (CEO) and cofounder Aadit Palicha, highlighted that the company has reported 800% increase in its revenue on a quarterly basis. Secondly, the cash burn of the company has come down by a fifth on a pre-order basis. The company also claims to maintain an Net Promoter Score (NPS) — a metric that companies use to measure customer loyalty — at 88-points, he noted. “This unbelievable execution over the past few months has made it clear to investors that Zepto will be one of the winners in Indian Q-Commerce,” he emphasised. The company is also piloting several services to deliver coffee, tea and items from local cafes — termed as ‘Zepto Cafe’ — in under 10 minutes across selected areas in Mumbai. The company plans to scale this service, which is not a food delivery vertical as per Zepto, across India if the pilot is successful. Zepto was founded by Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra in April 2021, and it currently delivers 3,500 products across 11 cities in 10 minutes flat. These services are available in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ghaziabad and other cities. Zepto plans to start its operations in another dozen cities in the near future. “We not only want to just expand across the country but we also want to double down on the team we have built because frankly creating a $900 million company in nine month is an insane achievement. Frankly, the team has had everything to do with that,” Palicha told Business Insider. He noted that the company has already hired 1000 people across functions over the last few months and plans to hire another 1000 in the next one year. The first round of hiring was focused on all verticals — engineering, analytics, operations, marketing, finance, and human resources (HR). The second round would be focused on tech and product. The<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/newsletter-23-december-2021/binewsletter/88440534.cms"> competition in the quick commerce segment</a> has increased significantly even since the second half of 2021. Zepto competes with Reliance-backed Duzno, Swiggy Instamart, Zomato-backed Blinkit (Grofers) and now Tata-backed BigBazaar. SEE ALSO <a class="tout-title-link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/adani-wilmar-revenue-rockets-fuelled-by-boiling-edible-oil-prices/articleshow/91260794.cms"></a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/its-open-india-now-has-a-century-of-unicorns/articleshow/91254798.cms">It's Open — India now has a century of unicorns</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/upi-reached-new-heights-with-5-58-billion-transactions-in-april-2022/articleshow/91250099.cms">UPI reaches new heights with 5.58 billion transactions in April 2022</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/byjus-swiggy-and-ten-other-startups-raised-the-biggest-round-last-quarter/slidelist/91251672.cms">Byju's, Swiggy and ten other startups raised nearly $4 billion last quarter</a>

These two 19-year-olds scaled Zepto into a $900 million company in nine months

<ul><li>Quick grocery delivery app <keyword id="12437554" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="zepto" source="Orion">Zepto</keyword> has raised $100 million in a Series C round. </li><li>Zepto had earlier raised $60 million only 45 days ago, at a valuation of $225 million.</li><li>It expanded its presence to Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurgaon, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune in the last two months.</li></ul>Quick grocery delivery app Zepto — founded by two 19 year old Stanford dropouts only seven months ago — is now valued at $570 million by marquee investors of the Indian startup ecosystem. Zepto was founded by Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, and it currently delivers 2,500 products in 10 minutes flat. The company, on December 21, announced that it has raised $100 million in a Series C round led by Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund. New and existing investors, including Glade Brook, Nexus, Breyer Capital, Lachy Groom, Global Founders Capital, Contrary Capital and others. Zepto had earlier raised<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/this-six-month-old-startup-is-nearing-google-backed-dunzos-valuation-by-delivering-groceries-in-10-mins/articleshow/87457816.cms"> $60 million only 45 days ago</a>, at a valuation of $225 million. The company claims to have expanded its presence from Mumbai to Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurgaon, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune in the last two months. The company is now looking to enter Kolkata. Zepto’s valuation is now nearly double of Google-backed <keyword id="3275685" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="dunzo" source="Orion">Dunzo</keyword>, which is among the oldest players in the domain. The company was said to be valued at <a href="https://entrackr.com/2021/03/exclusive-dunzos-valuation-crosses-300-mn/">$300 million </a>in March 2021, when the company raised $8 million. Another competitor Swiggy, which started its <keyword id="9728281" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="instamart" source="Orion">InstaMart</keyword> offering in 2020, has decided to invest $700 million in the domain and enable 5 minutes delivery. Meanwhile, <keyword id="2466939" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="grofers" source="Orion">Grofers</keyword> has decided to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/grofers-founder-explains-why-he-rushed-to-rebrand-the-startup-and-his-plans-seem-ambitious/articleshow/88320706.cms">rebrand its entire billion dollar business</a> to <keyword id="12724311" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="blinkit" source="Orion">Blinkit</keyword> in order to showcase its focus on 10 minute delivery. The company <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/grofers-has-now-shutdown-18-location-after-rebranding-to-blinkit-heres-how-you-can-check-if-deliveries-are-available-in-your-locality/articleshow/88389021.cms">decided to shut down operations in 18 cities</a>, and focus only 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, cofounder and chief executive (CEO) of Zepto, said. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/banks/news/lic-owned-idbi-bank-gets-hit-by-6710-crore-loan-default-by-a-diamond-merchant-the-biggest-since-nirav-modi/articleshow/88392370.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">LIC-owned IDBI Bank gets hit by ₹6,710 crore loan default by a diamond merchant, the biggest since Nirav Modi</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/kavin-bharti-mittals-hike-is-offering-eth-to-anyone-who-find-a-chief-meme-officer-or-a-crypto-game-economist-for-the-company/articleshow/88388082.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Kavin Bharti Mittal's Hike is offering ETH to anyone who find a 'chief meme officer' or a 'crypto game economist' for the company</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/how-do-rising-covid-19-cases-lead-to-a-fall-in-markets/articleshow/88385905.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Why is the stock market falling so sharply today?</a>

Two teenage Stanford dropouts have made their startup worth half a billion in 7 months

<ul><li><keyword id="12437554" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="zepto" source="Orion">Zepto</keyword> said that with its network of ‘cloud stores’ or micro-warehouses, it is able to consistently deliver in 10 minutes.</li><li> <keyword id="3275685" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="dunzo" source="Orion">Dunzo</keyword> too launched its dark stores in Bengaluru to enable quicker delivery of groceries, meat and medicine. </li><li>Dunzo was valued at $300 million in March 2021, while Zepto is now valued at $225 million.</li></ul>Quick grocery delivery app Zepto on Monday said it has raised $60 million in an early-stage round to expand its 10-minute delivery service nationwide. The company is valued at $225 million. Zepto said that with its network of ‘cloud stores’ or micro-warehouses, it is able to consistently deliver in 10 minutes through a combination of technical and operational excellence. “The data speaks for itself – once we started delivering in 10 minutes, our NPS (net promotor score) shot up and has constantly remained at around 85 with a 50%+ week-on-week user retention rate, which shows the incredibly strong customer love for our product,” said Kaivalya Vohra, Founder &amp; CTO. Aadit Palicha and Vohra, both computer science graduates from Stanford University in the US, have built Zepto this year with backing from institutional investors like Glade Brook Capital, Nexus and Y Combinator, along with individual investors. Zepto said it is expanding quickly across Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR and will be launching in key areas across Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Kolkata in the next 30 days. Its management includes senior leaders from Flipkart, Uber, Dream11, Pharmeasy and Pepperfry, to name a few. “Q-Commerce in India is an opportunity of epic proportions and strong unit economics. Today, we’re consistently growing 200 per cent every single month with an unstoppable team, robust product infrastructure, and deep access to institutional capital,” said Palicha. Zepto competes with Google-backed Dunzo in the quick commerce space. Earlier this year, Dunzo too launched its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/google-backed-dunzo-earned-nearly-600-crore-from-8-cities-in-fy21-ceo-says-theyll-start-expanding-now/articleshow/85656919.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">dark stores in Bengaluru</a> to enable quicker delivery of groceries, meat and medicine. The company's was valued at $300 million in March 2021, according to an Entrackr <a href="https://entrackr.com/2021/03/exclusive-dunzos-valuation-crosses-300-mn/" data-type="tilCustomLink">report</a>. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/former-google-ceo-says-facebooks-metaverse-is-not-necessarily-the-best-thing-for-human-society-and-expresses-concerns-about-safety-of-artificial-intelligence-technology/articleshow/87440405.cms">Former Google CEO says Facebook's metaverse is 'not necessarily the best thing for human society' and expresses concerns about safety of artificial intelligence technology</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/india-starts-probe-into-facebooks-algorithm-seeks-info-on-moderation-process/articleshow/87326285.cms">India starts probe into Facebook’s algorithm, seeks info on moderation process</a> Facebook's problem isn't its brand - it's Mark Zuckerberg

This six-month-old startup is nearing Google-backed Dunzo's valuation by delivering groceries in 10 mins

234-year-old company EID Parry is only a tad more valuable than year-old  unicorn GlobalBees

<ul><li><keyword id="2321288" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="conquest" source="Orion">Conquest</keyword> is a student-run startup accelerator run by 30 engineering students of BITS Pilani.</li><li>It started as a B-plan competition by the founders of GreyOrange during their college days at BITS Pilani.</li><li>The 7-week accelerator programme will finally culminate in a Demo Day.</li></ul>In India, the era of fast-moving tech startups was ushered in post the 2000s, with the launch of smartphones, cheaper access to the Internet, and positive regulations in the space. Since then, the startup ecosystem has undergone a phase of swift development, seeing multiple cycles in an extremely compressed amount of time. We are now seeing the ecosystem accelerate its pace of growth as it races to reach the same levels as the startup worlds in the USA and Europe. The global interest in the ‘Indian Dream’ has never been greater, with Jio, UPI, and ONDC generating the thrust to justify this trust. Contributing and speeding this growth is Conquest, a student-run startup accelerator run by 30 engineering students of BITS Pilani who are striving to create value for early-stage startup founders. Conquest started as a B-plan competition by the founders of GreyOrange during their college days at BITS Pilani. Over the years, it pivoted into a full-fledged startup accelerator model inspired by the likes of Y Combinator. It is run by a group of students from BITS Pilani with the purpose of providing value to the startups who come to Conquest; by solving crucial problems like fundraising, mentorship, networking, and scaling which these startups face as they step into the market. It has successfully disbursed equity-less grants worth over ₹60 lakhs in the past two years, thus solving the problem of equity dilution for early-stage startup founders. <div type="image" title="Conquest 2019, Grand Finale at The Leela Palace - Bangalore" msid="93774234" hostid="261" sizebytes="1571761" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Conquest 2019, Grand Finale at The Leela Palace - Bangalore&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The exhaustive 7-week accelerator programme will finally culminate in the Demo Day, which is the grand finale of the entire accelerator programme; where the 15 most promising startups (out of the 2,000 registered) will fly into Bangalore and pitch themselves to a jury consisting of top VCs, angel investors, representatives from partners like Nexus Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and other prominent stakeholders of the ecosystem. The Demo Day will be held on August 28, at Shangri-La in Bangalore and will be witnessed by founders and investment partners of some of India’s leading startups and representatives from the government. Speakers cutting across domains like <keyword id="11137018" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sumit-gwalani" source="Orion">Sumit Gwalani</keyword> of Fi, Vishesh Khurana from Shiprocket, <keyword id="13079" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="rahul-sharma" source="Orion">Rahul Sharma</keyword> of Zetwerk, and Srikanth Velamakanni of Fractal.ai, Ashish Singhal of Coinswitch among others; will engage in insightful panel discussions. If you wish to be a part of the Demo Day, register directly from here: <a href="https://lu.ma/demo-day-conquest22">https://lu.ma/demo-day-conquest22 </a> This year, Conquest hosted over 100 experienced founders, VPs, and CXOs from Meesho, HBO, BigBasket and more as mentors. They provided over 350 mentoring sessions to the Conquest’22 cohort. It also has a large resource pool of partners like AWS, Notion and Freshworks <div type="image" title="Partners engaging in an insightful panel discussion" msid="93774251" hostid="261" sizebytes="1536781" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Partners engaging in an insightful panel discussion&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Conquest is backed by some of the ecosystem’s biggest names, with WestBridge Capital as the title sponsor — a highly experienced investment firm managing over $5.6 billion across India and South Asia. It is also backed by SolRazr, the first decentralized developer ecosystem for Solana as the Web3 Track Sponsor. Conquest also has IDFC FIRST Bank as the exclusive banking partner, which provides an exhaustive suite of products and services for startups. Aditya Birla Ventures is the venture partner, and it backs new-age, high-growth businesses having the potential to emerge as industry leaders; and EY as the general sponsor, which is one of the world’s largest professional networks providing consulting, assurance, tax, and transaction services. Conquest also partnered with <keyword id="1767678" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="wework-labs" source="Orion">WeWork Labs</keyword> as an innovation partner, which is a global acceleration platform for early-stage startups, SMBs, investors, and enterprises offering access to capital, education, mentorship, cost-saving credits and premium collaborative workspaces for the founders in Conquest 2022. Venus Communiti, which is a Bangalore-based venture focusing on providing an all-in-one immersive living and working experience for entrepreneurs and professionals, is also the startup experience partner this year. Another initiative which the Conquest team conceptualized this year was the India Portfolio Summit, a weekend-long summit that chronicled the growth of the Indian startup ecosystem back from the 1980s. The summit was a grand success and saw some of the greatest entrepreneurial minds, including the likes of Aadit Palicha, Piyush Shah, Vibhor Jain and Dipti Tandon among others come together to talk about their journeys <div type="image" title="Representative image" msid="93774289" hostid="261" sizebytes="1204737"></div> Here is a glimpse at this year's cohort of Conquest- PredictRAM DeFi (<a href="https://predictram.com">https://predictram.com</a>) PredictRAM’s Risk Management Protocol uses AI.M, CI and Web 3 technologies that created event specific multi asset-backed traded tokens ETT to mitigate individual portfolio risk at low cost. StreamMoney (<a href="https://www.streammoney.finance/">https://www.streammoney.finance/</a>) StreamMoney is building a utility transfer protocol that transfers conditional ownership of NFTs without collateral. It facilitates P2P rentals of NFTs, NFT ticketing, memberships, and subscriptions (Live on Solana Devnet). Fragments (prev. <keyword id="14810458" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="gullak-party" source="Orion">Gullak Party</keyword>) (<a href="https://gullak.party/">https://gullak.party/</a>) Gullak Party enables diligent investors to set up investment DAOs for purchase-based investing with retailers. Statlogic (<a href="http://www.statlogic.io/">http://www.statlogic.io/</a>) Statlogic is a deep-tech company developing artificial intelligence-driven solutions in the field of animal husbandry and dairying. Green Tiger Mobility Private Limited (<a href="http://www.greentiger.in/">http://www.greentiger.in/</a>) It is India’s first company to offer a dual powertrain on two-wheelers. Debound (<a href="http://debound.in/">http://debound.in/</a>) Debound, is making a whole new category in the edtech space by cleverly integrating the hottest extracurricular skills from their palette right into school-level academics. Enpointe (<a href="http://www.enpointe.in/">http://www.enpointe.in/</a>) "enpointe" allows influencers to authenticate products by giving them a virtual storefront on a collective platform. OriginKonnect (<a href="https://originkonnect.in/">https://originkonnect.in/</a>) OriginKonnect is taking a holistic approach in simplifying global agri-food trade by building a technology B2B supply chain platform for agri-food exporters and importers. FreightFox (<a href="https://www.freightfox.ai/">https://www.freightfox.ai/</a>) With FreightFox, customers (manufacturing enterprises) experience better control, visibility and data-driven decision-making for logistics procurement and operations. UNINO Healthcare Private Limited (<a href="http://www.uninohealthcare.com/">http://www.uninohealthcare.com/</a>) UNINO has designed and developed patented technology for a chest drain management system called PleuraGoh®. Euphotic Labs (<a href="http://www.letsnosh.io/">http://www.letsnosh.io/</a>) Nosh is an AI-based home robot that makes cooking hassle-free and enables consumers to eat healthy and freshly cooked home food conveniently. Scrollify (<a href="https://scrollify.in/">https://scrollify.in/</a>) Scrollify is a bite-sized content platform, they are using trendy bite-sized content to create a platform for upskilling for industry professionals and students. <keyword id="14810457" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="xebra-biztech-llp" source="Orion">Xebra Biztech LLP</keyword> (<a href="https://xebra.in">https://xebra.in</a>) Xebra is a SaaS ERP for B2B MSMEs that provides real-time actionable to entrepreneurs from their business performance. Daffodil Health (<a href="https://www.daffodilhealth.com/">https://www.daffodilhealth.com/</a>) Daffodil Health is helping children with special needs and their families by solving the large demand-supply gap in the healthcare ecosystem by pioneering Parent Mediated Therapies. Aiverse (<a href="http://www.aiverse.co.in/">http://www.aiverse.co.in/</a>) Aiverse is a deep tech ecosystem enabler on the blockchain. It is dedicated to the collaboration, creation, and dommerce of deep tech. <div type="image" title="Scout My Trip - Winner of Conquest 2019, receiving equity less cash prize of ₹3 lakhs" msid="93774318" hostid="261" sizebytes="1066117" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Scout My Trip - Winner of Conquest 2019, receiving equity less cash prize of ₹3 lakhs&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Disclaimer: This article is published in partnership with Conquest, BITS Pilani

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