Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal’s statements on Zepto’s cash-burn. Aadit Palicha responds
Despite the strong rebuttal, Palicha emphasized that there was no animosity between the two founders.
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Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha has pushed back against statement made by Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal regarding the quick commerce industry's cash burn, calling them "verifiably untrue."
Taking to LinkedIn on Tuesday, Palicha responded to Goyal's comments in a media report, where the Zomato CEO claimed that the quick commerce sector burns around Rs 5,000 crore per quarter, with Zepto allegedly accounting for "substantially more than half" of this figure.
"His words were that Quick Commerce was burning ₹5,000 crore per quarter, of which 'substantially more than half of this is by Zepto'—implying that we are losing substantially more than ₹2,500 crore per quarter," Palicha wrote in his post. "This will be proven wrong when the company files its financial documents."
Deepinder Goyal's statement
In an interview, Goyal suggested that Blinkit, Zomato's quick commerce arm, was only responsible for 2-3% of the total industry cash burn, compared to Zepto's higher burn rate.
"We think the total burn for all companies in quick commerce is around ₹5,000 crore per quarter, conservatively speaking. Substantially more than half of this is by Zepto… compared to this, we’re burning very low numbers. Last quarter, Blinkit burned around ₹35 crore per month on an average," Goyal stated.
He further asserted that despite lower spending, Blinkit continued to capture market share. "They (Zepto) have burned Rs 2,200-2,300 crore last quarter, and we have burned 4% of that but still gained market share, so how does it matter? We'll just do the right thing for the business," he added.
Palicha clarifies there's no feud
While Palicha strongly refuted the claims, he maintained that his response was not a personal attack on Goyal.
"I know Deepinder, and I know he has only good intentions; this quote could have been taken out of context or said as an honest mistake," he said, adding that he deeply respects the Zomato founder.
"Deepinder started Zomato when I was five years old, and he has become a role model for the Indian startup ecosystem. I have personally read all of his blogs, and it's a privilege to learn from and compete with Zomato. Our genuine intention is to build the Indian startup ecosystem together in good faith," Palicha remarked.
