A short history Zepto's previous claims on incoming profitability (and the eventual truth)

Zepto is claiming that they'd be profitable by FY29. But interestingly, this is not the first time they're making such a claim. Here's a short history of the company's previous claims on incoming profitability (and the eventual truth).

In Oct 2023, the company said it is on track to achieve EBITDA breakeven (excluding ESOP and other statutory non-cash line items) in another 10 months.

But by Nov 2024, that didn't happen. Still, Zepto claimed to have "nearly" achieved EBITDA positivity, and that approximately "75% of its stores are fully EBITDA positive".

Now that claim also didn't seem to have landed. Because in Dec 2024, the company's FY24 reports came out, which showed that Zepto did revenues of ₹4,454 Cr at a loss of ₹1,248 Cr.

It's also around the same time when the company's chief came out and said the famous words:

"In the next financial year, we will be PAT positive."

Doubling down on that, on Apr 2025, the CEO then claimed, "Zepto is now close to achieving breakeven on both EBITDA (ex-ESOPs) and Operating Cash Flow".

But did any of that pan out? No.

On Dec 2025, the company's FY25 numbers came out, where it turned out that it had made a loss of ₹3,367 Cr at a revenue of ₹9,688 Cr. Which means that despite all those claims of nearing profitability, as compared to FY24, the company only managed to grow its revenues by 129%, all while growing its losses by 177%.

(By the way, companies typically recognise only about 15-20% of GMV as revenue in Quick Comm. Based on that, Zepto's operational revenue for FY25 would've been ~₹1,500-2,000 Cr (with ₹3,367 Cr in losses)).

Now, on Apr 1, 2026, the much fabled FY26 got over. But what about the previous claims of incoming profitability? They were just quietly ignored and forgotten. As if they never happened. On the contrary, it came out that in the last quarter of FY26, the company was losing about ₹42-46/order. With over 20 Lakh orders, that's roughly ₹11 Cr/day, or ₹1000 Cr/quarter.

So what about, "In the next financial year, we will be PAT positive"? Or that story about "achieving breakeven on both EBITDA and Operating Cash Flow"? Or that most stores are "EBITDA positive"?

All that was poetry. Very similar to how Mr. Bhavish Aggarwal sang, "Ola will be profitable in two years" back in 2017, and then went on to post many years of Thousand Cr+ losses. In fact, back in FY21, Ola even showed an "operating profit" just before it was trying to launch its IPO. But then the IPO market fizzled out and Ola took almost two years to reveal its FY22 numbers, where it showed a loss of ₹1,522 Cr at a revenue of ₹1,970 Cr.

Would that happen with Zepto? I don't know. But reports say that the company is left with cash of about ₹6000 Cr, which as per the current burn should last ~5-6 quarters. Hence the IPO..

P.S. I have nothing against Zepto or its plans. Mostly, I just feel sad about the hurt this loss making adventure is causing to the neighbourhood Kirana stores. 2 Lakh+ Kiranas closed in 24/25, directly because of Quick commerce companies. All that led to a job loss of around 6 Lakh people, easily. I don’t think enough people are talking about it the cascading effects of all that.

Sad...

A short history Zepto's previous claims on incoming profitability (and the eventual truth).

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