Zepto pilots snack delivery model in Mumbai; CEO says won't deliver other foods

10-minute delivery start-up, Zepto is piloting a snacks delivery model called 'Cafe' in several parts of Mumbai and will likely expand to other metros after strengthening its execution model, the company co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha told Business Today in an exclusive interaction. 

The 19-year-old CEO, however said that his company is not keen on foraying into the "food delivery" vertical, which includes delivering fast food, biryanis, etc. 

"The focus will be entirely on delivering packaged items, snacks like cookies, croissants, tea and coffee, and we have limited our deliveries to that. We are not foraying into any other kind of food delivery ," Palicha said.

He added that the plans on expanding its snacks delivery to other metros will entirely lie on the execution strategy, unit economics and the delivery capabilities under the pilot model.

Zepto is banking on the existent delivery centres network and the localised rider force to offer its services within 10 minutes which now includes snacks besides the existent groceries.

"We have built upon our original business model and are now growing 50 percent month-on-month. The foray into other verticals like medicines is also being considered and we will do it when we scale our operations," Palicha added.

With the quick commerce industry witnessing a massive interest from the companies including Zomato, Ola, Swiggy, Reliance among others, the Zepto CEO, who is credited with introducing the concept to India, said that his company has focussed on profits, building a solid delivery centre network and execution model.

In December 2021, Zepto had raised $100 million in a Series C round led by Y Combinator's Continuity Fund at a valuation of $570 million, a 2X jump from its valuation nearly 45 days ago when it had bagged $60 million.