Chennai: Quick commerce platform Zepto has become the first unicorn in 2023 as it raised $200 million from private equity investors.
Zepto has scooped up $200 million in its Series E round. The round was led by venture capital firm StepStone with participation from Goodwater and existing backers, including Nexus Ventures, Glade Brook, and Lachy Groom.
With this, Zepto has raised over $560 million to date and its valuation has soared to $1.4 billion from $900 million when it raked in $200 million Series D in May last year, according to Entrackr.
This is the first unicorn after a gap of almost one year. There were no unicorns in the first six months of 2023. In fact, India saw its last unicorn in September 2022 when healthcare diagnostic firm Molbio raised funds for over $1 billion valuation.
Zepto claims to provide quick delivery of 6,000 products across groceries, fruits, and vegetables in seven cities including Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai. Mumbai, Bengaluru and NCR are its top three markets in terms of sales.
Nexus Ventures is the largest stakeholder in Zepto with 20.07 per cent holding while the founders collectively own nearly 28 per cent. With its $200 million round, the company is likely to have diluted around 14 per cent.
According to the company, it saw a 10-fold jump in revenue in FY23. Zepto’s unicorn round will intensify competition in the quick commerce space which has Swiggy Instamart and Zomato-owned BlinkIt. Another quick delivery start-up Dunzo has been facing fund crunch.
