Still a lot of fear and lack of ambition among founders in India, says Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha

Still a lot of fear and lack of ambition among founders in India, says Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha

Indian startup founders often “lack ambition” and settle for modest wins instead of chasing global scale, said Zepto co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Aadit Palicha, urging the ecosystem to aim for the dynamism seen in markets like the US and China.

“As an ecosystem, we are very much post-2001 right now, where people were less ambitious – because we had a big reality check in 2022-23. And there is still a lot of fear and lack of ambition in general (in India),” Palicha said, in conversation with Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan.

The 22-year-old CEO critiqued the tendency of Indian entrepreneurs to celebrate early traction rather than pushing for category-defining outcomes. He argued that this mindset limits the potential of startups in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets and called for a cultural shift toward bolder, long-term thinking.

“It is very easy to be at $3-4 billion in GMV (gross merchandise value), get to breakeven, go public, and just take it easy. You’ll do well. But wouldn’t it be much better to go 5x or 6x that. And if there is opportunity there, then why not go for it. In the US, that mindset is taken for granted. Everyone has that here. But in a place like India, it is still germinating,” he said.

According to the CEO, Zepto’s execution-focused culture, which is designed for “the super ambitious, the super capable” has the potential to drive immense value for the country in the long-term.

“If you don’t really have a mission that excites people, then you can’t push them to that level where they are giving their all. The mission that I try to bring out is to build a truly great internet company in India, and kick off the internet revolution that should have been much bigger than it is today,” he said.

“I think we can create ten-fold more value for the country than we have today. If you look at places China, the dynamism came from internet companies, and that spread everywhere. So, maybe we can be a small part of that,” Palicha added.

As per Palicha, Zepto continues to grow rapidly. The quick commerce unicorn has grown its advertisement vertical from $40 million in annualised revenue run-rate (ARR) to $200 million in the past year.

This comes shortly after Palicha shared that Zepto’s gross order value (GOV) has inched closer to $4 billion, representing a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 300 percent, and reduced its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) burn by 50 percent.

The company has been on a fundraising spree over the last year, as it nears its initial public offering (IPO), expected later this year. Moneycontrol was first to report that Zepto recently changed its name from Kiranakart Technologies Private Limited to Zepto Private Limited to create a better brand recall among stakeholders across the board.

The company has also flipped its base back to India from Singapore, and has raised as much as $1.35 billion in a span of five months. The Bengaluru-based company raised $665 million in June 2024 from Glade Brook Capital, The StepStone Group, Nexus Venture Partners, and other,s and then went on to close a $340 million round in August 2024 from General Catalyst and others.

It then secured $350 million from Motilal Oswal, Ranjan Pai’s Claypond Capital, and other Indian investors.

The company is also in talks with several top mutual fund houses to raise another $300 million in a secondary round, as it looks to get more domestic shareholders on its cap table to avoid regulatory scrutiny during IPO.