Quick-commerce unicorn Zepto's revenue from operations jumped from Rs 141 crore in FY22 to Rs 2,024 crore in FY23, driven by increased store count and customer acquisition. Zepto's expenses tripled from Rs 533 crore in FY22 to Rs 3,350 crore in FY23, leading to a threefold increase in losses from Rs 390 crore to Rs 1,272 crore.
CEO Aadit Palicha says Zepto's losses are largely due to opening new stores, which require investment for the first 12-15 months before they start turning a profit. Mumbai-based Zepto saw its other income, mostly from in-app ads, increase from Rs 1.7 crore in FY22 to Rs 53 crore in FY23, boosting its top line.
Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha says advertising revenue is growing faster than the company's overall business and expects this trend to continue in FY24. Zepto's monthly cash burn fell from around Rs 90 crore in September 2022 to about Rs 55 crore in April 2023, Moneycontrol reported earlier.
CEO Aadit Palicha says Zepto is on track to become profitable on an adjusted EBITDA basis (excluding ESOP and other statutory non-cash line items) within 10 months, thanks to its declining monthly cash burn. Employee costs were one of Zepto's biggest expenses in FY23, jumping over 5X to Rs 263 crore, from Rs 51 crore in FY22.
This was due to Zepto's headcount increasing from around 150 employees at the end of FY22 to over 1,000 by the end of FY23. CEO Aadit Palicha said once Zepto becomes profitable on an adjusted EBITDA basis, it will only be 3-4 months away from turning positive on a profit after tax (PAT) basis.
Zepto surpassed Blinkit in terms of revenue in FY23. Zomato-owned Blinkit's revenue from operations jumped 207% to Rs 724 crore from Rs 236 crore in FY22, while its net loss widened slightly from Rs 1,021 crore to Rs 1,190 crore.
Despite growing only 5%, Zepto's revenue was still smaller than Tata-owned BigBasket's. BigBasket's B2C arm, Innovative Retail, saw its revenue from operations grow from Rs 7,096 crore in FY22 to Rs 7,434 crore in FY23. However, its losses jumped 89%, from Rs 813 crore in FY22 to Rs 1,535 crore in FY23.