Quick commerce war heats up: Swiggy's Sriharsha Majety slams volume-first strategy, Zepto's Aaadit Palicha fires back on cash burn
While Swiggy selectively added just 40 new dark stores in the September quarter, focusing on maximizing existing asset utilization, rivals are aggressively expanding.
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The rivalry in India's quick commerce sector has intensified into a public spat over strategy, with Swiggy and Zepto's top executives sparring over the best path to market dominance. Swiggy co-founder and Group CEO Sriharsha Majety has signaled a clear pivot, stating the company will play the "long game" by prioritizing profitability and sustainable growth over merely chasing higher order volumes that inflate short-term scale.
Majety's remarks, made during Swiggy's Q2 FY26 analyst call, appeared to be a direct response to rival Zepto's recent claims of exceeding 20 lakh daily orders. Without naming the competitor, Majety emphasized that Swiggy is focused on building a business with "staying power," which he said requires a category to consistently improve its contribution margins. "Chasing volume growth at the cost of poor average order values and weak contribution margins is a choice—but not one we want to make," he asserted. Swiggy's Instamart currently boasts the highest Average Order Value (AOV) in the category at ₹697, and its Q2 FY26 Gross Order Value (GOV) accelerated 108% year-over-year to ₹7,022 crore.
Zepto co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha was quick to counter, telling Moneycontrol that Zepto has delivered more orders than Swiggy's Instamart while simultaneously burning "far less cash per order" over the last two quarters. Palicha challenged the notion of "staying power" linked to Instamart's cash burn, which he claimed was higher than Zepto's. He also reinforced his company's position, arguing that order volume and cost efficiency are more relevant metrics than AOV, a view Majety's comments directly opposed.
The intensifying war of words reflects a new, high-stakes phase of the quick commerce battle. While Swiggy selectively added just 40 new dark stores in the September quarter, focusing on maximizing existing asset utilization, rivals are aggressively expanding. Blinkit, in particular, added 271 dark stores in the quarter and plans a massive expansion to 3,000 stores by March 2027. Zepto, buoyed by a recent fundraise, is also ramping up city expansion and customer acquisition campaigns.
Against this backdrop of heightened competitive intensity, Swiggy is moving to fortify its balance sheet. The company's board is scheduled to meet on November 7 to consider raising up to ₹10,000 crore through a Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) to ensure it maintains the necessary capital strength and strategic flexibility to sustain its growth ambitions. The quick commerce market, now seeing scale-up efforts from Reliance’s JioMart, Flipkart’s Minutes, and Amazon Now, is making both capital reserves and operational efficiency the critical factors for survival in the next phase of growth.
