Zepto Funding History and Valuation Journey: The Pre IPO Guide for Investors
Key Takeaways
- Since September 2020, Zepto has raised over $2.4 billion across multiple funding rounds till October 2025.
- The proceeds of the fresh issue would be used for the expansion of the dark store network, technology and infrastructure development, brand building and customer acquisition activities and for general corporate purposes, including working capital.
- In 2024, Zepto made a reverse-flip, shifting its holding structure from Singapore to India.
- As per the Updated DRHP filed in June 2026, the Zepto IPO is a combination of a fresh issue of ₹8,010 crore and an OFS, with the total IPO size estimated to be approximately ₹10,000 crore.
- This will be a structural IPO for the quick commerce segment as Zepto will be the first quick commerce pure-play business to list on a domestic exchange, with rivals like Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart already giving it a stiff competition.
- Its revenue has doubled to ₹22,624 crore in FY26, but its loss has also increased to ₹5,905 crore, suggesting that profitability remains elusive.
In 2020, two Stanford students started building a grocery delivery application on their own. They named it KiranaKart, established a goal of 10-minute delivery and raised their first $500,000 by the end of the year. The founders, Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, had then dropped out of Stanford to go all in, and the company was officially launched in 2021 under the name Zepto.
In less than five years, Zepto has raised more than $2.4 billion across more than 14 documented funding rounds, with its last valuation at $7 billion, and has submitted its Updated Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) to SEBI in June, making it one of the most anticipated IPOs of 2026.
Here, we will explore the company's institutional capital structure development in detail.
Zepto funding and valuation (September 2020 – October 2025)
The following timeline traces Zepto's complete funding journey - from its $500,000 seed round in September 2020 to a $450 million late-stage funding round in October 2025, which valued the company at $7 billion.
September 2020 - Seed Round
- Amount Raised: $500,000
- Valuation: Not disclosed
- Investors: Global Founders Capital, Y Combinator, Ricardo Schäfer, Contrary Capital
March 2021 - Seed Round
- Amount Raised: $125,000
- Valuation: Not disclosed
- Investors: Unpopular Ventures, Y Combinator
October 2021 - Series B
- Amount Raised: $60 million
- Valuation: $225 million
- Investors: Y Combinator, Nexus Venture Partners, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Nexus Ventures, Lachy Groom
December 2021 - Series C
- Amount Raised: $100 million
- Valuation: $570 million
- Investors: Global Founders Capital, Y Combinator, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Nexus Ventures, Lachy Groom, Contrary Capital, Breyer Capital
May 2022* - Series D
- Amount Raised: $200 million
- Valuation: $900 million (480.3× EV/Revenue)
- Investors: Oliver Jung, Y Combinator, Nexus Venture Partners, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Lachy Groom, Contrary Capital, Kaiser Permanente
August 2023* - Series E
- Amount Raised: $200 million
- Valuation: $1.4 billion (6.0× EV/Revenue)
- Investors: Nexus Venture Partners, StepStone Group, Goodwater Capital, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Lachy Groom
November 2023* - Series E
- Amount Raised: $31.3 million
- Valuation: $1.4 billion (6.0× EV/Revenue)
- Investors: Oliver Jung, Nexus Venture Partners, Goodwater Capital, Mangum II
June 2024* - Series F
- Amount Raised: $665 million
- Valuation: $3.6 billion (6.9× EV/Revenue)
- Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners, DST Global, Nexus Venture Partners, StepStone Group, Goodwater Capital, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Lachy Groom, Contrary Capital, Avenir Growth Capital
August 2024* - Series G
- Amount Raised: $340 million
- Valuation: $5 billion (9.6× EV/Revenue)
- Investors: Avra, General Catalyst, Mars Growth Capital
November 2024* - Late VC
- Amount Raised: $296 million
- Valuation: $5 billion (9.6× EV/Revenue)
- Investors: Raamdeo Agrawal
May 2025* - Secondary Transaction
- Amount Raised: $100 million
- Valuation: Not disclosed
- Investors: Raamdeo Agrawal, Motilal Oswal
July 2025* - Late VC
- Amount Raised: $866,000
- Valuation: $5 billion (3.8× EV/Revenue)
- Investors: Elcid Investments
August 2025* - Convertible Note
- Amount Raised: $45.6 million
- Valuation: Not disclosed
- Investors: Motilal Oswal Financial Services
October 2025* - Late VC
- Amount Raised: $450 million
- Valuation: $7 billion (5.3× EV/Revenue)
- Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, StepStone Group, CALPERS, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Avenir, Avra
*Note: Post-money valuations are publicly reported. EV/Revenue multiples are calculated using the reported valuation and the company's trailing annualised revenue at the time of each funding round.
The IPO path from DRHP to D-street
Zepto had undergone a major corporate restructuring before DRHP filing. Like most Indian startups that raised early international capital, the company was initially held through a Singapore-registered entity. Zepto undertook a reverse-flip with redomiciling of its holding structure from Singapore to India in 2024, before it planned to list domestically on Indian exchanges.
Zepto opted for the confidential pre-filing route with SEBI and filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus in December 2025. Then, in May 2026 Zepto secured SEBI approval for the IPO. Zepto filed its updated DRHP with SEBI in June 2026, making it publicly available.
As per the U-DRHP, the Zepto IPO comprises a fresh issue of ₹8,010 crore worth of equity shares and an Offer for Sale (OFS) of up to 113,466,566 equity shares by existing investors. The total IPO size is expected to be around ₹10,000 crore.
The fresh issue proceeds of ₹8,010 crore are proposed to be used in the expansion of dark store networks, investment in technology and infrastructure, brand building and customer acquisition and general corporate purposes, including working capital.
Axis Capital, Morgan Stanley India, Goldman Sachs (India), Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors, HSBC Securities, JM Financial and IIFL Capital Services are the book-running lead managers.
The bottom line
Zepto's funding journey represents its fast-moving, heavily capitalised, intensely competitive, and still-in-work path to sustainable profitability. Within a little more than four years, two founders have transformed a $500,000 seed cheque into a $7 billion company with the support of one of the world's largest pension funds.
But the stiff competition posed by other competitors like Blinkit and Instamart, along with the fact that losses have increased up to ₹5,905 crore in FY26 while revenue has doubled to ₹22,624 crore, suggests that the business model has matured, but profitability for the company is still a future goal and not an immediate reality.
For Indian retail investors, the Zepto IPO represents an opportunity to own a part of the first dedicated quick-commerce company to list on a domestic exchange. Whether that translates into strong listing gains or long-term wealth creation will depend on how quickly Zepto can convert its scale advantage into margin expansion and how patient its new public shareholders are as that happens.
