Let us talk about funding. Funding can be defined as the way, a method to put in and invest cash into the business.
We all know that last year, which was the year 2020 was a year of unpredictabilities and uncertainties. There was an outbreak of COVID 19 in the whole world, and everyone was put under lockdown, all forced to sit inside their homes.
The national and the international borders were closed and people were scared for their lives. People were dying, the hospitals had no place to admit more patients. The medical facilities were not proving that success and there was fear, of what will happen.
All the schools and colleges were closed. Though there were online classes arranged for them, what we forgot was that there is a lack of infrastructure on the end of both the students and the teachers. What suffered most besides the students and their education was the economy. With all the businesses closed, shops closed, there were no customers to buy products and services of the company.
The economy had gone down and the GDP of the country had fallen to a very large extent. Many companies laid off their employees and for many, there was a cut in the salary and people were crying for their jobs and for their salaries.
It was like a black period in our lives. But now the economy is started recovering, and the people and the economy are getting back on track. We don’t know what will happen after a month or probably after two. But hopefully, now we all have learned our lesson and we will be prepared if any sort of this pandemic comes again.
Announcement of funding of a startup
The startup, Zepto, has raised a funding of USD 100 million, as announced on December 21, 2021. This round of funding was led by Y Combinator. The other participants of this round of funding were Glade Brook Capital Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Breyer Capital, and Lachy Groom, who is an investor in Silicon Valley.
The startup plans to utilize the funds raised to grow and expand its team and also to move into new cities. Post this round of funding, the value of the startup has increased to USD 570 million. This round of funding has come just 45 days after the previous round of funding, where the startup had raised USD 60 million, with the startup valuing at USD 225 million.
About the startup which has received funding
The startup, Zepto, was founded five months ago by Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra. They both are childhood friends, who dropped out of Stanford University, where they were pursuing programs in computer science. They then returned back to India where they started working in quick commerce and founded this startup.
The startup is engaged in delivering groceries and daily essentials within the time span of 10 minutes. The startup has its headquarters in Mumbai where it started its operations first, but then it also started its operations in Bengaluru, Delhi, and four other cities, which are Gurgaon, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. The incoming city for the startup is Pune.
How does the startup works?
The following is the way the startup works-
Order– Choose from a wide range of daily essentials
Don’t blink– The delivery partner of the startup will be at the door of the customer in 10 minutes
Enjoy– Boom! The customers will never have to wait for the groceries again
The application of the startup is available in both Android and iOS. The competitors of the startup are- Dunzo, which is backed by Google, Blinkit, which is backed by SoftBank Group Corporation, Swiggy, which is backed by Naspers Ltd, and Flipkart, which is backed by Walmart
With so many and big names in the competitors’ list, the game-changing point for the startup is the “ten-minute delivery”. The startup has around 100 dark stores, which are micro-warehouses, and are located within high-demand neighborhoods.
Such warehouses take the help of technology, with which they perform tasks like deciding store locations, product placement, and mapping out delivery routes so that traffic congestion can be avoided.
The startup currently delivers more than 2500 items like fresh produce, cooking essentials, snacks, and beverages, personal care items, and home cleaning products. Another striking number of the startup is that it is adding around 100,000 new customers every week.
About online grocery delivery market in India
The online grocery market is the upcoming one in the country. The market was of the value USD 2.9 billion in the year 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 37.1% from the year 2021 to 2028.
With increasing urbanization, changing lifestyle of people, and the dependency of people on technology growing, this sector is seeing a huge rise. The COVID 19 lockdown also saw an increase in the demand for online groceries.
Talking about the regional insights, in the year 2020, South India had the largest share in terms of revenue with the share being around 34.6%. According to the forecast, this part of the country is expected to be at the top.
The highest number of online consumers were in Bengaluru and Chennai. Big Basket is the most preferred brand in the South Indian cities. The second-fastest-growing region at the CAGR of 37.3% in West India.
This region has cities like Pune and Mumbai, which have a huge number of millennials and working women. They prefer online grocery delivery because of the comfort and convenience.
About Y Combinator
Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that was launched in the year 2005. It has its headquarters in California, United States.
This startup accelerator has played a role in launching more than 3000 companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, Dropbox, Twitch, Reddit, and many more. According to Forbes, Y Combinator was one of the most successful accelerators in Silicon Valley for the year 2012.
The motto of Y Combinator is “Make Something People Want”, where it teaches founders how to market their products, team, and market, thus refining their business model, where they can achieve product as well as market fit and thus eventually scale the business into a high growth business.
The startup is doing amazingly well. It is growing at such a large scale. We wish the startup nothing but good luck and a bright and successful future ahead.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
