Mumbai: Quick Commerce player Zepto is gearing up for its ₹11,000 Initial Public Offering (IPO) as the company looks to raise funds to sustain its presence in the crowded, highly competitive quick commerce (q commerce) space in India. According to widely reported sources, Zepto has filed its IPO confidentially with SEBI, with a targeted IPO scheduled sometime next year.
If the listing goes through, Zepto will join its main rivals, Eternal-owned Blinkit and Swiggy, which are already listed on the bourses.
Though Zepto has managed to capture almost one-third of the Q-commerce market after Blinkit, the company hasn’t been able to eke out a profit yet, despite raising almost $1.8 billion (₹16,000 crore) from marquee investors to date.
If the company goes public next year, it will become one of the youngest startups to debut on the exchanges, given that the company was founded just four years ago after the pandemic.
Since then, the company has aggressively expanded, opening almost 900 dark stores across the country, garnering sales worth ₹26,000 crore.
Unlike Blinkit and Swiggy, Zepto is purely focused on q-commerce, making it extremely vulnerable to market volatility. Though quick commerce is growing in India, players in the space are yet to make meaningful profits, as intense competition, low customer loyalty and deep discounting leave little room for them to boost margins.
Zepto has struggled to contain its losses, which have ballooned to almost ₹3,367 billion in FY25, from ₹1,215 crores a year ago. There have been many complaints against the company from its suppliers and customers, even as it looks to maintain its market share in the industry. Even if the money raised could wipe out its debts, the intense competition in the sector and a lack of alternative sources of income could force the company to seek more investments, further diluting its market valuation.
Given its precarious financial position, how the company aims to move toward profitability remains to be seen, given that further details haven’t been released yet.
