An elated and vindicated Aadit Palicha, co-founder and CEO of quick commerce major Zepto, addressed around 5,700 employees a day after raising $450 million in a fresh round which values the firm at $7 billion.
Palicha congratulated the team on the fundraise but said going forward the company has to solve for value. By value, Palicha was referring to lowering prices of goods for consumers.
“We have cracked proximity, but yet to crack value and DMart, the retail giant, has cracked value but not proximity,” Palicha is learnt to have said, per employees Moneycontrol spoke to.
“Both Zepto and DMart are stuck at the same juncture right now,” Palicha added.
Zepto did not respond to Moneycontrol's queries.
DMart, a chain of retail stores, operates DMart Ready, its quick commerce unit which offers next day deliveries. Zepto, on the other hand, delivers in 10-15 minutes.
DMart has around 432 stores, about half of Zepto’s 800-1,000 dark store footprint. However, on revenue terms, Zepto is significantly smaller.
DMart clocked a net profit of Rs 684.85 crore for the quarter ended September 2025 while Zepto is a loss-making business for now, as is the case with many startups.
“When we started off, we were number 7 but we are number 2 now,” Palicha is learnt to have said. Zepto competes with Eternal’s Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart, Tata’s BigBasket, Flipkart Minutes, Amazon Now and others.
Palicha however believes some companies will fold. “There will be a maximum of 2-3 players,” Palicha told employees.
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