Doorstep Deliveries Done Right

Quick commerce platform Zepto has been able to attract investors and turn unicorn during a funding winter. That takes some doing  

- Arnab Dutta

IN MID-2020, India was battling the Covid-19 pandemic, with the country being under a stringent lockdown. The pandemic had brought India to a standstill, hitting the supply chain. For citizens stuck in homes, securing their daily essentials—from wheat flour to detergents—without venturing out was the biggest challenge. Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, two teenagers stuck in a small apartment in Sher-e-Punjab colony in Mumbai’s Andheri East, decided to do something about it.

“Most online delivery apps were taking seven to 10 days to deliver essential items, while mom-and-pop stores were shut. So, we decided to cater to the many elderly people that resided in the locality,” says Palicha. The duo, childhood friends who dropped out of Stanford University to pursue their entrepreneurship dreams, put in ₹3-4 lakh to set up KiranaKart, tying up with grocery stores to cater to their locality. As the service gained traction and the number of customers swelled to 200 by November, they raised some $125,000 from Y Combinator as a part of its early stage programme. Quick commerce app Zepto was launched in April 2021.

Three years since its humble beginnings, Zepto has grown exponentially and has turned into a unicorn—it is one of the fastest Indian ventures to cross this milestone. As per its latest round of funding in November 2023, when Zepto raised $235.4 million, the company was valued at $1.435 billion.