Zepto CEO and Co-founder Aadit Palicha has accused the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a competing company of running a smear campaign against Zepto. In a LinkedIn post, he claimed that this rival CFO is spreading false information to hurt the company’s reputation and slow down its rapid growth.
Palicha said the campaign includes several actions, such as calling Zepto’s investors to make untrue claims, sharing fake data and Excel sheets about Zepto with journalists, and paying bots on social media to spread negative posts. He did not name the rival firm, but Zepto competes with platforms like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Flipkart Minutes, and Tata BigBasket in the quick delivery space.
Growth Raises Concerns
Palicha suggested that the rival CFO might be reacting to Zepto’s strong business performance. He believes the CFO is nervous about Zepto’s improving financials. According to him, Zepto has grown from Rs 750 crore of gross order value (GOV) in May 2024 to Rs 2,400 crore in May 2025.
He explained that Zepto’s GOV numbers include fruit and vegetable sales at full price, along with advertising revenue. He added that the company’s EBITDA has improved by 20 percentage points between January and May 2025. In the same time frame, Zepto also cut its cash burn by about 65 percent.
Positive Store Outlook
Palicha said the company expects most of its dark stores to become fully EBITDA-positive by the next quarter. This includes all costs such as supply chain, customer service, delivery, and store expenses.
As of the current quarter, Zepto has around Rs 7,445 crore of net cash in the bank. With the company’s reduced spending, Palicha stated that Zepto has enough funds to operate for many more years.
The CEO ended his post by urging the rival CFO to stop spreading lies. He said that while strong competition is welcome, using dishonest tactics is unacceptable. Palicha added that investors are seeing through these actions and recognizing Zepto as a serious and fast-growing competitor.
