Fortune Exclusive: Zepto 'not delaying' IPO plans; finding opportune moment to raise $800 mn

Denying reports of deferment, Zepto has confirmed that the company plans for an IPO in early 2026 as scheduled earlier. A company spokesperson confirmed to Fortune India, “The company co-founders had long set anywhere between late 2025 and early 2026 as the IPO deadline. Either way, the plan has not been to defer or delay, but just to find an opportune moment to do so.”

The quick-commerce giant plans to file its DRHP later this year and go public by early 2026, aiming to raise $800 million.

In his earlier interactions with the media, Zepto co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha had said that late 2025 and early 2026 is a realistic timeline for the IPO.

The spokesperson added that while companies like Zomato and Swiggy set a trend of loss-making firms going public, Zepto's strategy is to first achieve a healthy position across verticals.

They noted that many firms go public to offer early investors an exit, but Zepto does not face that pressure and instead aims for EBITDA positivity or break-even before its IPO. The company currently has over 900 dark stores and 48,000 SKUs.

“It will itself be monumental for an almost 5-year-old company to go public, one of the fastest any company has ever achieved,” the spokesperson added. For now, the company is focused on closing its ongoing funding round, aiming for at least 51% domestic shareholding to support a favourable policy push.

“That is one thing that we are aggressively working towards now,” the spokesperson said.

As for the current shareholding pattern, the spokesperson did not disclose the exact split but said the company has already achieved nearly 40% domestic ownership, hinting that a larger investment round may be announced in the coming days. Zepto recently received funding from Motilal Oswal and Raamdeo Agarwal as part of its ongoing secondary share sale targeted at domestic investors.

A secondary share sale, in the context of private companies, refers to the sale of existing shares by current shareholders to new investors. This differs from a primary sale, where the company issues new shares to raise capital.

To enable a shift in shareholding without existing investors exiting completely, the company has created a secondary pool by carving out small portions of equity, such as 0.15% or 0.5%, from existing investors, the spokesperson said.

While the company has not disclosed the valuation at which the current investments are being raised, it is likely proceeding with its existing $5 billion valuation, despite planning to close a GMV of $4 billion later this month.

Aside from profitability, another reason the company cited for not filing its DRHP sooner was prevailing uncertainty at both national and global levels, the spokesperson said, referring to recent events such as the Pahalgam attacks, the Ahmedabad crash, and the Iran-Israel conflict.

Addressing reports of over 40 Zepto cafés shutting down, the spokesperson said setting up a café is a significant addition to the order book. However, with the evolution of dark store infrastructure, it is now capable of supporting café operations as well, which significantly cuts down costs. To optimise supply chain inefficiencies, the company has merely paused standalone café setups, intending instead to develop them as integrated store-cum-café formats at a later stage.