Mumbai’s loss is Bengaluru’s gain: Zepto to move headquarters to tech capital

Zepto co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha (L), who sits out of the Mumbai office, will also relocate to Bengaluru. Kaivalya Vohra (R), co-founder, already operates from Bengaluru

Quick commerce startup Zepto, which has been growing in size and revenue, is preparing to move its base from Powai in Mumbai to Sarjapur in Bengaluru, the tech capital of India, Moneycontrol has learnt.

The company already has an office in Bengaluru but wants to move all corporate roles into a bigger space and consolidate operations from across cities.

The three-year-old company, which has its business verticals in Mumbai and tech and product teams in Bengaluru, will bring all its 1,700-1,800 employees under one roof. “While the company has been flexible for now, we have all been mandated to relocate to Bengaluru by the end of November or early December,” a Zepto employee told Moneycontrol, requesting anonymity. 

The company will bear relocation expenses for all employees willing to move to Bengaluru. The move is estimated to cost the company around Rs 3-4 crore as a one time expense, a person aware of the developments said.

“The relocation cost will be offset because Zepto is estimated to save around Rs 40-50 lakh in rent per month because of its move from Mumbai to Bengaluru,” the person told Moneycontrol.

Bigger property

Zepto has two major offices in India. A 80,000-90,000 square feet property in Mumbai and a smaller 30,000-40,000 square feet space in Bengaluru. It will give up both these buildings and move into a larger, 1.5 lakh square-feet property in Bengaluru.

A Zepto spokesperson confirmed the developments to Moneycontrol.

Zepto is already in advanced stages to finalise a property of that size in and around Sarjapur, HSR or Bellandur, Moneycontrol has learnt. Several large multinational companies (MNCs) and new-age startups are based in Bellandur, HSR, Sarjapur and surrounding areas crowded with tech parks.

As it sets up an office in one of these areas, Zepto will be placed closer to rivals such as Swiggy and Flipkart, both of which have offices in the same neighbourhood.

Employee strength and hiring plans

Of the 1,700-1,800 Zepto employees, around 1,000 are in Mumbai, 400 in Bengaluru and 300 are scattered around different regions, looking at city operations.

“Of the total 1,000 employees in Mumbai, around 90 percent are already willing to move and the remaining are in discussions to relocate. If all goes to plan, just 5-7 percent of the 1,000 will be unable to move to Bengaluru,” the person cited above said.

That is a risk Zepto is willing to take, since it believes it is a growing company, which makes it easier to attract talent. Successive funding rounds only help Zepto’s case further. A bulk of its future hiring will happen for and from Bengaluru.

In an interview to Moneycontrol earlier, Zepto co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha said the company planned to hire 500 employees for the corporate side and increase total strength to around 2,200-2,300.
Zepto is also in the process of flipping its base to India, as reported earlier. 

Zepto's move comes at a time when Tech Entrepreneurs Association of Mumbai (TEAM) is attempting to make Mumbai an attractive city for founders to build in and scale from. Harsh Jain from Dream11, Ashwin Damera from Eruditus and several others are all part of TEAM.

The move is however not new.

Other prominent founders who moved from Mumbai to Bengaluru in the last decade include Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal, Unacademy's Gaurav Munjal, CRED's Kunal Shah, Jupiter's Jitendra Gupta and others.

The move has not been limited just to founders, but even investors backing them.

VCs who moved here from other cities include the team of India Quotient, Elevation Capital, among others.

"Bengaluru is the place to be if you’re starting up. Don’t even think about any other place. (The city's) network effects are too deep to be broken," Unacademy's Munjal had said on X (formerly Twitter) in February.

"Mumbai and Delhi cannot become tech hubs how much ever people try," he added.