Zepto, the fast-growing Indian grocery delivery app, is close to raising a huge amount of money, $100 million in a new funding round. This would be their third funding round in just six months, and they're looking for more Indian investors to join in.
Zepto is based in Mumbai and delivers groceries and office supplies to your doorstep in just 10 minutes in many Indian cities. They're raising this new money from wealthy Indian families and individuals.
Motilal Oswal, a big investment firm that already invested $40 million in Zepto, is helping them find new investors. They've already collected commitments for more than half of the money they're trying to raise.
This new investment values Zepto at a whopping $5 billion, which is the same value they had after their last big funding round in August. In the past six months, Zepto has raised over $1 billion, and they still have all of that money in the bank.
Zepto is planning to go public next year and they're raising this new money to attract more Indian investors. Some of their big investors include Avra, Lightspeed, Nexus, StepStone Group, YC Continuity, Glade Brook, and Contrary.
While quick commerce startups are struggling or closing down in many other countries, they're doing well in India. In fact, these startups are expected to sell more than $6 billion worth of goods this year.
Because quick commerce is becoming so popular in India, many big e-commerce companies like Flipkart, Myntra, and Nykaa are trying to deliver things to customers faster.
Shares of Dmart, a big retail chain in India, went down this week after they said they're losing some customers to quick grocery delivery apps. Analysts at Morgan Stanley said these quick commerce apps are expanding to more cities, selling more products, increasing the average order value, and offering bigger discounts. This is making it easier for customers to get what they need quickly.
Zepto, one of the biggest quick commerce companies, has been growing very fast recently. Zepto's co-founder and CEO, Aadit Palicha, told investors in August that they expect to grow by 150% in the next year
