Zepto Is Coming to Dalal Street. Here Is How to Evaluate This IPO Before Applying.
9 hours ago
India's most talked about quick commerce startup just filed its updated DRHP with SEBI on June 9, 2026, officially setting the clock on its stock market debut. Zepto will be the first pure-play quick commerce firm to list on Indian exchanges, with an IPO size expected to be around Rs 10,000 crore. Before you get caught up in the hype, here is what every investor needs to know.
What is the structure of the IPO?
The IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 8,010 crore along with an offer for sale by early investors including Nexus Ventures, Contrary ZEP Holdings, Razor Ventures, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, and Kaiser Permanente Group Trust. Importantly, neither of the founders is expected to sell shares in the offering, which signals confidence in the business going forward.
The growth story is genuinely impressive.
Revenue from operations surged 103.63% to Rs 22,623.58 crore in FY26 from Rs 11,109.94 crore in FY25. As of March 2026, Zepto had 4.79 crore annual transacting users, up 25% year on year, and a total dark store count of 1,139. The company processed 210 million orders in Q4 FY26, or 2.33 million orders a day, with orders per store per day jumping to 2,140 from 1,425 a year earlier.
But the losses are widening, not narrowing.
For the full year FY26, net loss widened to Rs 5,905.19 crore from Rs 4,699.71 crore in FY25. Revenue is doubling, but so is the burn. Total expenses surged to Rs 29,026.7 crore in FY26, with procurement of traded goods forming the largest cost component. The Q4 FY26 loss did narrow to Rs 1,538 crore from Rs 1,831 crore — a positive signal, but one quarter does not make a trend.
What will the money be used for?
A significant portion of the IPO proceeds will be directed toward expanding Zepto's dark store network, with the company targeting nearly 1,900 new dark stores by FY30, along with substantial lease payments for existing infrastructure and technology investment.
The risk factor every investor must read.
Zepto disclosed that co-founders Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra were issued notice by the Enforcement Directorate under FEMA, a couple of weeks before the updated DRHP was filed. This was categorised as a risk factor in the filing. The founders did appear before the ED and have complied with the summons. It does not mean wrongdoing has been established, but it is a material disclosure and investors should weigh it accordingly.
The competitive landscape is brutal.
Zepto competes directly with Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Amazon Now, Flipkart Minutes, and BigBasket in a sector where every player is still burning cash to win market share. Being first to list is a narrative advantage, not a profitability guarantee.
Going forward, the fundamentals here are mixed in the classic growth-stage way. Revenue trajectory is strong, operational efficiency is improving quarter on quarter, and the founders have skin in the game. However the losses are wide, the competitive moat is still being built, and the regulatory cloud adds uncertainty. Focus your analysis on whether the path to profitability is credible before the listing euphoria sets in. A stock with strong growth can still make for a bad investment if it is priced to perfection on day one.
How to evaluate an IPO starts with three things: fundamentals, valuation, and narrative. On fundamentals, look at revenue growth, loss trajectory, free cash flow, and debt. On valuation, ask whether the price being asked reflects the business today or a future that may never arrive. On narrative, assess whether the sector tailwind is real. Zepto ticks the growth box convincingly but the widening losses mean the profitability narrative still needs to be earned, not assumed.
How to evaluate IPO price comes down to peer comparison. For profitable companies use Price to Earnings. For loss-making ones like Zepto, Price to Sales and EV to GMV are more useful. The most important check is the last private funding round — Zepto was valued at $7 billion in October 2025. If the IPO price lands significantly above that, early investors are asking public market buyers to absorb a further markup on top of an already-rich valuation.
How to evaluate pre IPO stock options requires understanding what you are actually buying. Look at the liquidation preference structure, anti-dilution clauses, and the cap table. In Zepto's case, marquee names like CalPERS, Nexus Ventures, and General Catalyst are on the cap table — that institutional quality is a positive signal. However pre-IPO investors should note that the OFS component means some of these early backers are partially exiting at listing, which tells you something about their own confidence in the upside from here.
How to evaluate IPO documents starts with the risk factors section — this is where companies are legally required to disclose material concerns. In Zepto's DRHP, Risk Factor 29 discloses the ED summons to both founders under FEMA. Beyond risk factors, study the objects of the issue to understand where the money is going. Zepto plans to spend Rs 1,628.9 crore on new dark stores, Rs 1,734.9 crore on existing store leases, and Rs 1,324.7 crore on technology. That allocation tells you this is an expansion-stage business, not a path-to-profit story yet.
Upcoming IPO India 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most active listing calendars in recent years. Zepto is the headline name but Carlsberg India, Kuku, and a strong pipeline of fintech and healthcare businesses are also in the queue. For investors tracking upcoming IPO India 2026, the key discipline is not getting swept up in listing day momentum. Each filing deserves independent analysis regardless of the buzz around it.
On Zepto vs Blinkit market share, Blinkit leads the quick commerce India 2026 race by a significant margin. Multiple research reports place Blinkit's share broadly in the 45 to 46% range, with Swiggy Instamart at 25 to 27%, and Zepto at 21 to 29% depending on the source and methodology. It is worth noting that none of the major players publish granular order volume or GMV data publicly, so any specific Zepto vs Blinkit market share figure should be treated as an approximation rather than a precise fact.
The Zepto IPO is one of the most consequential listings on Dalal Street in 2026. The revenue growth is real, the operational efficiency is improving quarter on quarter, the founders have skin in the game, and the quick commerce sector has structural tailwinds that are not going away. But the losses are wide, the competitive moat is still being built against a well-capitalised Blinkit, and the ED regulatory cloud adds a layer of uncertainty that cannot be ignored.
This is precisely the kind of situation where having a disciplined investment framework matters more than following the crowd. A stock with strong growth can still make for a bad investment if it is priced to perfection on listing day, and IPO euphoria has a long history of punishing investors who confuse a great business with a great entry point.
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The Zepto IPO is a signal that Indian capital markets are maturing fast. The question is not whether quick commerce is a real sector, it clearly is. The question is whether you have the right framework and the right support to navigate the opportunity intelligently rather than emotionally.
