Swiggy’s Sriharsha Majety takes a swipe at Zepto: ‘Won’t chase volume growth with poor average order values’; Aadit Palicha responds

Sriharsha Majety, Group CEO and co-founder, Swiggy

Swiggy will choose to play the long game, by prioritising profitability and growth, instead of chasing order volumes which will make the business look larger in the short term, co-founder and Group CEO Sriharsha Majety said during the company’s Q2FY26 analyst call, as competition in India’s quick commerce market intensifies once again.

Majety was responding to an analyst who cited Moneycontrol's story.

Earlier on October 30, Moneycontrol's story on Zepto crossing 20 lakh daily orders triggered a war of words between Swiggy's group CEO Sriharsha Majety and Zepto's CEO Aadit Palicha.

While he didn’t name any company, Majety said Swiggy remains focused on building a business with “staying power,” even as rivals expand rapidly and deploy fresh capital to chase scale.

As has been the view in the past, Majety said it is easy to compare Swiggy's business with publicly listed peers, but it is difficult to look at the numbers of private players.

“Chasing volume growth at the cost of poor average order values and weak contribution margins is a choice — but not one we want to make. In the long run, we’re playing to win, and that requires staying power. You can only have that staying power if a category consistently makes progress on contribution. Operating any other way just isn’t how we work,” Majety said on the call.

Majety added that it is difficult to even understand the definitions of how they (private market quick commerce players) are calculating everything that they are suggesting.

Zepto responds

In response, Zepto's co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha, in a fresh interview late on October 30, told Moneycontrol that Zepto has delivered more orders and burnt lesser cash than Swiggy's Instamart.

"I’m not sure how Instamart having higher cash burn per order than Zepto translates to more staying power," Palicha told Moneycontrol.

"Over the last two quarters, we have delivered more orders and burned far less cash per order than Instamart. That’s the reality that isn’t being accurately portrayed to investors," CEO Palicha said.

Earlier in the day, Zepto's Palicha, in an interview with Moneycontrol, said that Zepto’s order volumes were now 30–40 percent higher than its nearest rival, while maintaining a “substantially lower burn per order.” He also argued that average order values (AOVs) were less relevant than cost efficiency — a view Majety’s remarks appear to push back against, albeit without naming any company.

To be sure, according to Swiggy’s Q2 FY26 results, Instamart currently has the highest AOVs in the category, at Rs 697.

Competition heats up again

Majety and Palicha’s remarks come at a time when competitive intensity in India’s quick commerce sector has been steadily rising, with multiple players expanding their store networks and re-accelerating marketing spends.

While Instamart has leaned on discounts and offers via its Quick India Movement sale, rather than dark store expansion – it added just 40 new dark stores in the September quarter versus Blinkit’s 271 – rivals have stepped up dark store expansion to claw away market share.

Blinkit’s total store count reached 1,816 in Q2 and the company plans to reach 3,000 stores by March 2027. Meanwhile, Zepto’s recent fundraise has allowed it to ramp up city-level expansion and customer acquisition campaigns, further tightening competition across metro markets.

With Reliance’s JioMart, Flipkart’s Minutes, and Amazon Now also scaling up quick delivery offerings, the market has entered a new phase where both capital strength and operational efficiency will decide who can sustain the next leg of growth.

Swiggy weighs fresh fundraise amid rivalry

Against this backdrop, Swiggy is looking to strengthen its balance sheet. The company’s board will meet on November 7 to consider raising up to Rs 10,000 crore via a qualified institutional placement (QIP) to bolster growth capital and maintain strategic flexibility.

Instamart's revenue rose 102 percent to Rs 1,038 crore on an annual basis, from Rs 513 crore in Q2 FY25. GOV growth accelerated to almost 108 percent YoY to Rs 7,022 crore. It had reported a GOV of Rs 3,382 crore in the year ago period, and Rs 5,655 crore in the previous quarter.