Zepto (YC W21), a grocery delivery app in India, raises $60M
1–10 of 16 posts
Re: Zepto (YC W21), a grocery delivery app in India, raises $60M
#2[deleted]
Re: Zepto (YC W21), a grocery delivery app in India, raises $60M
#3How are they able to raise money with established players already present in the market like Swiggy and several others?
Re: Zepto (YC W21), a grocery delivery app in India, raises $60M
#4"Dark stores", 10 min delivery in Indian cities, with bumper to bumper traffic, and it takes an hr to drive 5 km in peak traffic.
Sounds like a whole lotta BS to me.
Re: Zepto (YC W21), a grocery delivery app in India, raises $60M
#5How are they able to raise money with established players already present in the market like Swiggy and several others?
Never underestimate all the new money saying, "This will be different."
Re: Zepto (YC W21), a grocery delivery app in India, raises $60M
#6How are they able to raise money with established players already present in the market like Swiggy and several others?
Until such a time a HBS Case Study on Zepto is wrought, here's a bunch of MBA speak which may answer this:
1. There's always room for more companies than one may think. Oft times, the markets are too huge for a single player to dominate.
2. Addressing an adjacent market is a great way to take on the incumbents, who may or may not be able to match your unique innovation. This has the dual advantage of upending existing market and unlocking a bigger one, in tandem.
3. VCs may invest in promising companies competing against bets they missed out on. Besides FOMO, VCs also tend to value growth. Demonstrate an appetite for that, and with the right amount of luck and momentum, everything tends to fall in place.
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Regarding Zepto (aka KiranaKart), I have no inside knowledge, but their key selling point is they've figured out a way to deliver groceries in 10mins (!) with a sustainable business model in the 6 months they've been stealthily operating in Mumbai, the most dense, expensive, and biggest metropolis in India. In short, they've demonstrated the ability to create, deliver, and harness their innovation. Now it is all about doing so in a repeatable (sales), scalable (markets), valuable (moat), and predictable (revenue) manner.
Re: Zepto (YC W21), a grocery delivery app in India, raises $60M
#7"Dark stores", 10 min delivery in Indian cities, with bumper to bumper traffic, and it takes an hr to drive 5 km in peak traffic. Sounds like a whole lotta BS to me.
Typically it's the main roads that have traffic jam. Neighborhood roads are open, so the dark store has to be close enough to the customers. It could be done, but would be expensive.
Re: Zepto (YC W21), a grocery delivery app in India, raises $60M
#8"Dark stores", 10 min delivery in Indian cities, with bumper to bumper traffic, and it takes an hr to drive 5 km in peak traffic. Sounds like a whole lotta BS to me.
Typically it's the main roads that have traffic jam. Neighborhood roads are open, so the dark store has to be close enough to the customers. It could be done, but would be expensive.
During peak commute hours, all the traffic from main roads spills over into the side streets.
Case in point - my parents have an independent house, but the road on which it's situated, has become a so called "short-cut".
So when the main road gets congested, people take the "short-cut" to shave time.
I can see this work in the newly planned areas..
Re: Zepto (YC W21), a grocery delivery app in India, raises $60M
#9"Dark stores", 10 min delivery in Indian cities, with bumper to bumper traffic, and it takes an hr to drive 5 km in peak traffic. Sounds like a whole lotta BS to me.
At 10 mins delivery, they may not be doing delivery route optimization. I've 2 dark stores within a 5 min distance from my house. With a limited, high volume inventory they could pull off a model of shopping where enough people order small items when they need it. Hour to drive 5 kms is for cars, if you are on a 2-wheeler and willing to cut corners like drive on pavements you could be much faster.
Re: Zepto (YC W21), a grocery delivery app in India, raises $60M
#10How are they able to raise money with established players already present in the market like Swiggy and several others?
Until such a time a HBS Case Study on Zepto is wrought, here's a bunch of MBA speak which may answer this: 1. There's always room for more companies than one may think. Oft times, the markets are too huge for a single player to dominate. 2. Addressing an adjacent market is a great way to take on the incumbents, who may or may not be able to match your unique innovation. This has the dual advantage of upending existin…
> they've figured out a way to deliver groceries in 10mins (!) with a sustainable business model in the 6 months they've been stealthily operating in Mumbai
I dunno man, smells fishy. I never understood how the whole 10mins delivery thing could work economically, much less in a place with low purchasing power like India. Or maybe its just a sign that wealth inequality is rife in Mumbai such that people are willing to pay enough of a premium to cover low cost labor that makes it profitable. Maybe thats also why I'm not a billionaire yet.