Not every big IPO ends with a bell being rung at a stock exchange. Sometimes it ends, at least temporarily, with a quiet call between a company and its bankers agreeing to wait a little longer. That is roughly where Zepto finds itself right now.
The quick commerce company has postponed its public listing, according to multiple media reports, as valuation discussions with investors remain unresolved. In the meantime, Zepto may turn to a pre-IPO placement instead, looking to raise upward of Rs 1,000 crore, or roughly $105 million, from existing backers including Glade Brook, General Catalyst, Goodwater Capital, and Nexus Venture Partners, according to a Moneycontrol report. Under SEBI rules, companies preparing for an IPO can raise up to 20% of their proposed fresh issue through exactly this kind of placement, with whatever they raise simply adjusted against the fresh issue portion of the eventual public offering.
The scale of Zepto's ambitions has shrunk along the way too. The company originally set out to raise around Rs 8,000 crore through its IPO, filing an updated draft prospectus in June for a fresh issue of Rs 8,010 crore and securing SEBI's approval roughly a month later. Since then, reports suggest the actual IPO size has been trimmed down to somewhere between Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 6,000 crore, a meaningful step back from where things stood just weeks ago.
The numbers behind the delay help explain the hesitation. Zepto doubled its operating revenue to Rs 11,110 crore in FY26, up from Rs 5,454 crore the year before, genuinely explosive growth by any measure. But losses grew even faster in percentage terms that mattered, widening 26% to Rs 5,905 crore, making Zepto one of the largest loss-making startups in the country. The company closed the year with Rs 9,638 crore in current assets, including Rs 973 crore in cash and bank balances, enough runway to be patient, but not endless.
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