Top line can grow to Rs 2.5 trn in 5-10 yrs if executed well: Zepto CEO

Quick commerce unicorn Zepto revenue can grow multifold to Rs 2.5 trillion in 5-10 years if the company is able to execute the business well, a top company official said on Saturday.

Speaking at 7th JIIF Foundation day, Zepto Co-Founder and CEO Aadit Palicha said grocery and household essentials are the mother of all categories that are sold on leading e-commerce platforms Flipkart and Amazon in India.

He said the grocery and household essentials market was around $ 650 billion in India in FY23 and is growing at 9 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) and is expected to get to about $ 850 billion by FY29.

"If we execute well, we can realistically take this business from Rs 10,000-plus crores in top line today to potentially to... Rs 2.5 trillion of top line over the next 10 years or next five years," Palicha said.

"Your grocery is bigger than all the other categories that Amazon and Flipkart serve combined. If you look at electronics, apparel, furniture, you combine everything, and you double it, it's still not as large as grocery and household essentials," Palicha said.

The company's revenue have grown over fivefold to over Rs 10,000 crore in FY24 from about Rs 2,000 crore in FY23.

Last month, Zepto raised $ 665 million in an investment round that valued the firm at $ 3.6 billion, almost triple of what it was worth a year ago, and is preparing to list soon.

The three-year-old startup raised $ 665 million (about Rs 5,550 crore) from new investors, including New York-based private equity firm Avenir Growth Capital, venture firm Lightspeed, and Avra Capital, a new fund started by former Y Combinator Continuity head Anu Hariharan and Andreessen Horowitz.

Existing investors, including Glade Brook, Nexus, and StepStone Group also participated.

Palicha said the biggest challenge for the company is to hire people in the company with right attitude.

The startup plans to double warehouses used to deliver groceries within 10 minutes in a radius of two kilometres to more than 700 by March 2025 by reinvesting sales from mature stores to fund the expansion.

Zepto has about 29 per cent market share in 10-minute grocery delivery service (known as quick e-commerce), up from 15 per cent in March 2022. Blinkit is the market leader with nearly 40 per cent and the rest is with Instamart.

"We have been able to turn 75 per cent of our stores fully profitable and so we want to continue that trajectory even as we are expanding into new cities," Palicha said.