10-min grocery delivery startup Zepto raises $60 mn 

Zepto, a 10-minute grocery delivery venture, founded by two 19-year-old Stanford University dropouts, has raised $60 million in a round led by Glade Brook, Nexus, Lachy Groom, Y Combinator and Global Founders Capital.
 
The fresh investment will be used to expand its 10-minute hyperlocal delivery nationwide, the company said.
 
Founders Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, left behind their computer science degrees at Stanford University to build Zepto, with backing from institutional investors like Glade Brook Capital, Nexus, and Y Combinator, and individual investors including Lachy Groom, Neeraj Arora, Manik Gupta and others.
 
The startup said that with its optimised network of ‘cloud stores’ or micro-warehouses, Zepto is able to consistently deliver in 10 minutes through a combination of technical and operational excellence.
 
This announcement comes at a time when quicker hyperlocal delivery is gaining traction with startups like Grofers and Zomato claiming to disrupt this model. Vohra explained, “Simply put, customers love a rapid delivery experience. The data speaks for itself – once we started delivering in 10 minutes, our NPS 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.”
 
Zepto is expanding across Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR and will be launching in key areas across Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Kolkata in the next 30 days. With its tech office in Bengaluru and operations HQ in Mumbai, Zepto has also built out a strong team to manage their pace of growth. Its management includes senior leaders from some of the nation’s largest startups including Flipkart, Uber, Dream11, Pharmeasy, and Pepperfry to name a few.
 
Aadit Palicha said, “Q-Commerce in India is an opportunity of epic proportions and strong unit economics. We’ve been ignoring the noise and executing heads-down for a long time to perfect this model, and our efforts are paying off. Today, we’re consistently growing 200% every single month with an unstoppable team, robust product infrastructure, and deep access to institutional capital.”
 
Board members and investors are equally bullish on the company’s trajectory. “Quick e-commerce is poised to transform how many people shop around the world. Zepto has emerged as a leader in India, with exponential growth and best-in-class execution,” said Paul Hudson, CIO at Glade Brook Capital.
 
Suvir Sujan, Managing Director at Nexus Venture Partners, added, “They are disrupting e-commerce in India in a way we’ve never seen before and we’re super impressed by their innovative mindset, technology first thinking, and lightning-fast execution.”
 
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