As India's fastest-growing quick commerce company by volume prepares for its much-anticipated Rs 9,500 crore initial public offering, Zepto's founders Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra have chosen not to cash out. According to the company's updated draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), both founders will retain their stakes and will not participate in the offer-for-sale (OFS) portion of the issue.
Instead, the OFS will be led by some of Zepto's early investors. Nexus Ventures emerges as the largest selling shareholder, planning to offload up to 8.91 crore equity shares through its two investment arms. Meanwhile, ZEP Holdings LLC will sell up to 78 lakh shares, acquired at a weighted average cost of Rs 3.98 per share. Razor Ventures Zepto LLC is set to offload up to 94 lakh shares, with an average acquisition cost of Rs 11.37 per share.
Among other investors, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals plans to sell up to 44 lakh equity shares, acquired at a weighted average cost of Rs 11.29 per share, while Kaiser Permanente Group Trust will offload up to 42 lakh shares that were acquired at an average cost of Rs 11.26 per share.
The IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 8,010 crore and an offer-for-sale of 113 million shares by existing shareholders, according to the updated prospectus. The five-year-old company had confidentially filed its IPO papers with Sebi in December 2025 and secured regulatory approval in May this year.
The updated DRHP also disclosed that Palicha and Vohra were summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in April 2026 in connection with matters related to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). In the filing, Zepto said the founders were asked to furnish documents relating to foreign investments, audited financial statements for FY21, shareholding patterns, details of loans and guarantees, income tax returns, bank account information and other related records.
Zepto's market debut is expected to mark another milestone for India's rapidly evolving quick commerce sector. The listing will make it the third quick commerce player in the public markets after Blinkit parent Eternal and Instamart parent Swiggy. It will also become the first standalone quick commerce company to be listed on Indian stock exchanges.
The company intends to deploy proceeds from the fresh issue towards expanding its dark store network across existing and new markets, in addition to funding lease rentals for existing facilities. As of March 31, Zepto operated 1,139 dark stores. The company also plans to invest in technology and cloud infrastructure, while allocating capital towards marketing and business promotion initiatives.
Financially, Zepto continues to scale rapidly. For the January-March quarter, the company reported operating revenue of Rs 7,498 crore, representing a 75% year-on-year increase. Net loss narrowed to Rs 1,539 crore from Rs 1,832 crore a year earlier. During the quarter, Zepto processed 210 million orders on its platform, compared with 274 million orders for Blinkit and 113 million orders for Swiggy's Instamart.
The company competes not only with Blinkit and Instamart but also with Tata-owned BigBasket, Flipkart Minutes and Amazon Now in India's increasingly crowded 10-minute delivery market. Zepto's promoter group, comprising founders Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra along with their families and family offices, collectively own a 19.6% stake in the company.
The IPO comes at a pivotal moment for the quick commerce industry. While the sector remains one of the fastest-growing segments of India's consumer internet economy, companies are simultaneously battling for market share and facing increasing pressure to improve profitability.
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