IPO-Bound Zepto Appoints Airtel’s Akhil Gupta To Its Board

Quick commerce major Zepto has appointed Akhil Gupta, vice chairman of Bharti Enterprises, the parent entity of Bharti Airtel, as an independent director to its board, as it prepares for an initial public offering (IPO).

Currently, Zepto’s board includes cofounders Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, alongside Avra founder Anu Hariharan and Nexus Venture Partners’ cofounder and managing director Suvir Sujan.

Gupta, who has led public listings of Bharti Airtel (2002), Bharti Infratel (2012) and Airtel Africa (2019), is expected to share his expertise with Zepto.

As vice chairman, he has led the formation of various partnerships for Bharti with international operators such as British Telecom, Telecom Italia, Singapore Telecom and Vodafone. 

Additionally, he also brought onboard leading financial investors like Warburg Pincus, Temasek, KKR, Qatar Foundation Endowment, AIF and Sequoia, among many other private equity funds. 

This also comes at the heart of Zepto elevating several executives to senior roles in recent years, as part of its effort to consolidate its leadership team.

For instance, last year, the company promoted its senior vice president and head of loyalty programme Pass, Devendra Meel to the role of chief business officer. 

Prior to that, former senior vice presidents Nikhil Mittal and Divesh Sawhney were promoted as chief technology officer and chief growth officer, respectively.

Recently, cofounder Paalicha claimed that Zepto is getting close to $4 Bn in annualised gross order value (GOV) and also reduced cash burn.

“We have reduced EBITDA (excluding ESOPs) and operating cash flow (OCF) burn by 50% even as we grew meaningfully during the last three months,” he said.

He further added that the company’s newly launched dark stores are also on track to achieve breakeven in EBITDA.

Zepto has already set the IPO ball rolling with its reverse flipping in January. On the financial front, its net loss remained flat in FY24 at INR 1,248.64 Cr, a slight decrease from INR 1,271.84 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

However, the company has been making strides in terms of revenue growth as its consolidated revenue more than doubled to INR 4,454.52 Cr in FY24 from INR 2,025.70 Cr in the previous fiscal year, driven by the rising popularity of quick commerce. 

Zepto also seems to be doubling down on its efforts to strengthen its user base while also diversifying offerings. 

Just a few days ago, Zepto introduced ‘Zepto Daily’ at a nominal INR 1 entry fee for select customers. It also replaced its subscription service ‘Zepto Pass.’

Moreover, Zepto also incorporated a new entity, Zepto Marketplace Private Limited, to switch to a marketplace model from its erstwhile B2B2C structure. 

It last raised $350 Mn in a round led by Motilal Oswal’s private wealth division at the same valuation in November 2024. Meanwhile, reports also surfaced that Zepto was planning to raise a debt of $100-150 Mn to buy shares from existing investors.