Zepto’s Valuation Soars 40% in a Year to $7 Bn After $450 Mn Funding Round

Quick Commerce platform Zepto on Thursday announced it has closed about $450 million of financing in a mix of primary and secondary transactions. The cash-heavy round the company says leaves it with roughly $900 million of net cash on the balance sheet and positions it “well-capitalised for the future.”

The raise follows a period of rapid scale for the quick-commerce unicorn and comes with major changes to its employee-stock ownership programme.

Regulatory filings also show Zepto has enlarged its ESOP pool by roughly $170 million (about ₹1,495 crore), adding 39.4 lakh options and taking the total option pool to around 1.23 crore options with an aggregate value near $527 million (≈₹4,637 crore).

This brings Zepto among the largest ESOP programs in India’s consumer internet sector. The company has also approved an interest-free loan of ₹700 crore to its employee welfare trust to help staff exercise vested options without an upfront cash burden.

Improving Unit Economics

CEO and co-founder Aadit Palicha said the financing reflects Zepto’s execution and operating leverage as it scales.

Management and investors point to rapid growth, Zepto scaled order volumes about 200% over the past 18 months and claims to have ramped from ~500,000 daily orders to about 1.7 million. The firm’s leadership says it has increasingly driven store profitability even while expanding reach and investing in marketing and new openings.

Investors, Valuation & Deal Structure Notes

The $450m package reportedly includes both primary capital and secondary transactions; earlier reporting indicated a portion of the round was led by large institutional investors such as CalPERS, though Zepto’s public statement framed the closure as a mix of investor types.

The funding has been reported to value Zepto at about $7 billion, up from around $5 billion last year.

Zepto’s ESOP enlargement and the trust loan are aimed at retention and long-term incentives as competition intensifies in quick commerce. Company documents and market observers say such steps are commonly used by late-stage startups to reward senior hires, offer partial liquidity to employees and align incentives ahead of potential public markets access.

The company has reportedly talked about an eventual IPO next year in some coverage, though timing and formal plans remain subject to market conditions and board decisions.

Market Position

Zepto competes with the quick-commerce arms of larger platforms, Blinkit (Zomato), Swiggy Instamart and BigBasket, and continues to face pressure on unit economics despite its claims of store-level profitability.

Analysts note Zepto’s footprint remains concentrated in major cities (some reports put it in 80+ cities with over 1,000 dark stores) even as it pursues growth into smaller towns where order economics differ. The company has also been diversifying offerings (including a paused Zepto Café product in many locations) and iterating its app and merchandising to reduce complexity.