Can ZEPTO founder Aadit Palicha Crack The Quick Commerce Business?

Zepto Founder Aadit Palicha is a Stanford university dropout who ventured into quick commerce business along with the co-founder Kaivalya Vohra. The Start-up currently has a valuation of $900 million.

The age of the millennials conceived with it, updated terminologies and business concepts and Quick Commerce is one such business model. As the name denotes, Quick Business incorporates the services related to rapid deliveries of various items within 10-15 mins. Numerous players are jumping on the bandwagon of the quick delivery business, a large chunk of which deals with groceries. Devising a scalable business around this, Aadit Palicha, a Stanford dropout established ZEPTO along with his fellow Stanford dropout co-founder, Kaivalya Vohra. Within a mere nine months of operations, the company has an incredulous valuation of $900 million. 

Who is Zepto Founder ?

Zepto Founder Aadit Palicha is a 19-year old, young and ambitious entrepreneur. While pursuing Computer Science at Stanford University, he was stuck in India during the lockdown where the idea came to his mind. He decided to take the plunge of dropping out of college and, along with his friend, Kaivalya Vohra, established Zepto in 2021. He built his first startup at the age of 17 which was called GoPool. GoPool was a mobile application that enabled parents in Dubai to arrange carpooling for their children to school from the same locality. 

Thereafter, the passionate entrepreneur ventured onto his second company, KiranaKart. It revolved around the instant grocery delivery concept. As a matter of fact, that is the reason which led to the inception of Zepto. After closing round 4, the company is valued at a whopping $900 million within 9 months of commencing operations. Aadit Palicha, Zepto CEO observed the necessity for getting groceries delivered to people’s homes during the pandemic. 

Also read: How Qaddoo aims to resolve the problem of India’s unorganised retail sector?

Inception of Zepto

During the lockdown, while everything was shut down, the concept of food delivery began to gain traction. People warmed up to the idea of not having to step out of their homes for daily groceries. Local general stores tried to provide this service, but they could not replicate this pan India.

There was a massive potential for organising this space at a large scale. To achieve this, Zepto implemented the mini-warehouse concept that was established to store food near neighbourhoods and deliver it within 10 mins. Zepto claims that the average time to deliver an order at the moment is 8 mins 40 secs without the scope of any error. 

The company has already hired 1000 employees across various departments including engineering, analytics, operations, marketing, and finance in the first phase of hiring. The next phase of around 1000 hirings will be focused on technology and product development this year.

The increased interest from investors and big players in this space is a testament to the potential this nascent industry holds. Some prominent companies in the space include Dunzo, Swiggy Instamart, Zomato-backed Blinkit (Grofers), and Tata-backed BigBazaar. These giants are trying to cash in on this opportunity and grab a substantial chunk of the market. 

“It is easy to see the inevitable evolution of the Quick Commerce industry because of the promise it holds. The massive interest from the investors is natural as some big players are coming on board with the concept. However, the main challenge is to devise a sustainable and scalable business model out of this new-age concept. There are so many things that could go wrong with a 10-minute delivery promise because of all the external factors at play, but on a broader scale it should be manageable with creative solutions” – says Praveen Sinha, Founder of the first-ever fashion e-commerce jabong.com.

Challenges of the Quick Commerce Business

While the 10-minute delivery business may sound just what the customers would want (which is true), managing it and running a sustainable business operation is easier said than done. The delivery process for anything relies on a multitude of external factors including traffic situation, weather conditions, distance, availability of the products, geography, last-mile transportation condition, population, etc. Therefore, promising a 10-minute delivery could be tricky, especially as long as we are stuck with the age-old methods of manual delivery. 

One of the modern technology equipment could be the difference-maker in this space and the pilot projects to test the proof of concept have already been successful in many parts of the world. Yes, we are talking about Drones. That is the only method by which the deliveries could be made predictable, controlled and quick with fewer factors to consider.

The government of India has relaxed the red tape around the usage of drones in the country. The formalities around drone application have been reduced drastically over the last couple of years making it a viable instrument to incorporate into the delivery business to increase efficiency. 

The valuations of startups in the past couple of years have been quite rich. We are experiencing a sharp correction in some of the most popular IPOs in the tech industry at the moment. Hence, one can’t simply rely on astronomical valuations of tech companies. Most of these companies are not even profitable at the end of the day despite such large amounts being raised. Zepto raised a large amount too but the success of the business would still depend on how well the founding team manages the challenges surrounding Quick Commerce business.

In inference, it must be stated that while the quick commerce business looks enticing and incredibly potent with almost infinite growth potential, the actual implementation and operation on ground zero is not easy at all. Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha brings the learnings of his previous venture into Zepto to devise customised solutions and techniques to ensure that the company does what it promises and will continue to do so in a scalable and sustainable fashion. He is in a perfect position to rectify the errors of his previous firm and at least, have a shot at this seemingly arduous business model to be successful. 

Competitors of Aadit Palicha Founded ZEPTO

Quick Commerce offers the convenience of delivering groceries and other commodities at the doorstep as fast as possible, and the demand for it is on the rise. There are several well-known startups in India that are focused on ecommerce grocery business. Some of the competitors of Zepto are Blinkit, Dunzo, Swiggy Instamart, BB now, JioMart, etc.

Dunzo is a Bangalore-based firm that is focused on the fast expanding sector of instant groceries. It also offers a pickup and delivery service for couriers and packages. Swiggy Instamart is run by Swiggy, a prominent food delivery service. Instamart is a network of online convenience stores with an increasing demand in major cities in India. Grofers, a prominent online grocery delivery service, is now Blinkit and is funded by Zomato. Similar to Zepto, Blinkit likewise guarantees a 10-minute delivery window. Big Basket, now a Tata Enterprise, has also launched its BB Now Instant Grocery Delivery service. JioMart is an Indian e-commerce business that started off concentrating in online grocery sales before branching out into other categories including clothing, household supplies and lifestyle goods. JioMart and WhatsApp have partnered recently making it the first ever end-to-end purchasing experience on WhatsApp directly.

Some lesser known facts about Aadit Palicha | Net Worth | Education | Start-ups Founded

Also read: Zepto Founder Kaivalya Vohra – Youngest Entrepreneur in India’s Rich List