Zepto CEO: If you want to build a business bigger than Flipkart and Amazon, than this is the business

Aadit Palicha, co-founder and CEO of Zepto, a quick commerce platform in India, said that the company sees itself as a “hyperlocal Walmart of India,” according to a report in The Economic Times. Palicha believes that Zepto can realistically reach a topline of Rs 2.5 lakh crore in five years, focusing on the top 40 cities in the country.
“We think of ourselves as a hyperlocal Walmart for a hyperlocal India…That was the big gap that helped us get to the scale and the level of profitability we’ve gotten to,” Palicha said at an event in New Delhi, as reported by The Economic Times.

Building business bigger than Flipkart and Amazon

While Zepto and competitors like Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart are expanding into categories like electronics and fashion, Palicha believes that groceries and household essentials hold the biggest opportunity. “If you want to build a business that’s larger than Amazon or Flipkart…grocery is bigger than all the categories that Amazon and Flipkart serve combined,” he said. “If you take electronics, apparel, furniture and all the others – and double it, it’s still not as large as grocery and household essentials. So, we’re building in the mother of all categories,” he added.
The grocery and household essentials segment in India is estimated at $650 billion and is projected to grow to $850 billion by FY29, according to Palicha. Zepto will focus on the top 40 cities, which are expected to make up for nearly half of the market by FY29.
“Our focus is not really on the next 100 cities,” Palicha said. “From our perspective, if we execute well, we can realistically take this business from over Rs 10,000 crore in topline (gross merchandise value) today to Rs 2.5 lakh crore in topline over the next five years in the top 40 cities.”
Zepto reportedly became the fastest company to reach $1 billion in GMV and maintains a growth rate exceeding 100% year-on-year. The company also aims to double its dark stores or micro-warehouses to 700 to compete with rivals like Blinkit, Instamart, and Tata Group‘s BB Now.
This comes after Zepto closed a $665 million funding round in June, valuing the company at $3.6 billion. “In commerce generally, nobody has been able to build a hyperlocal platform at scale that has quality customer experience…and the reality is that most (of the) commerce in India is done on a hyperlocal basis,” Palicha said according to The Economic Times.