Zepto founder Aadit Palicha alleges smear campaign by rival CFO as quick commerce race heats up
Quick commerce
platform
Zepto
's cofounder
Aadit Palicha
has alleged that the chief financial officer (CFO) of a rival company is attempting to orchestrate a smear campaign against the startup by circulating false information to its investors, media, and on social media platforms.
Palicha claimed that the competitor's CFO had made 'wild allegations' without empirical evidence, and even gone to the extent of sharing 'false numbers and Excel sheets' with journalists through proxy sources.
The executive also alleged that bots were being paid to amplify a negative narrative online.
'Candidly, this episode is below the stature expected of the CFO of a high-quality company and makes it obvious that they are starting to get nervous about how fast Zepto's Ebdita is improving,' he wrote in a LinkedIn post. He said the company is choosing to respond preemptively in case any 'inaccurate information' appears in the media or on social media. Palicha shared several performance indicators aimed at underscoring its financial health and growth momentum:
Monthly gross order value (GOV) grew from Rs 750 crore in May 2024 to Rs 2,400 crore in May 2025, including ad revenue and fruits and vegetables sold at retail prices.Ebdita improved by 2,000 basis points (20 percentage points) between January and May 2025, with cash burn down 65% during the same period.The company posted 4–5% month-on-month growth, translating to a 20% GOV jump from January to May.Zepto expects a majority of its dark stores to be fully Ebdita-positive by the next quarter, with company-level Ebdita and operating cash flow nearing breakeven.The firm claims to have Rs 7,445 crore in net cash, reconciled with bank statements, offering 'many years of runway.'
He asserted that it is not planning any large-scale store rationalisation, and instead is ramping up dark store launches. Palicha highlighted Zepto's finance and compliance practices, saying it has 'best-in-class' payment systems, vendor audits, asset verification, and a clean statutory audit record with Big Four firms. He cited past financial due diligence exercises with no material irregularities.
While the identity of the rival CFO was not named, the allegations come at a time when competition in India's quick commerce sector is intensifying with players like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and Flipkart Minutes.
Quick commerce sector accounted for over two-third of all e-retail orders in 2024, with its total market share growing about five times to $6–7 billion from 2022, a March by consultancy firm Bain and ecommerce giant Flipkart showed.
Despite the rising popularity, quick commerce platforms are still struggling to attain profitability. The top three fast delivery players — Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto — were collectively burning around Rs 1,300–1,500 crore per month with Zepto accounting for the largest share, ET had reported in February. Burn rate measures how quickly a company spends its reserves before generating positive cash flow.
Amid rising competition, Flipkart decided to limit the expansion of its quick commerce unit, Flipkart Minutes, to the top six to eight cities to rein in costs, ET reported earlier this month.
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