Zepto CEO rubbishes Zomato founder’s ‘burning Rs 2,500 Cr’ claim

New Delhi, Mar 4 (PTI) Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha on Tuesday called Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal's comments that Zepto was burning Rs 2,500 crore every quarter as "verifiably untrue", saying public filing of financial statements will disprove the assertion.

Taking to LinkedIn on reports that quoted Goyal as saying that quick commerce firms were burning Rs 5,000 crore a quarter, half of which was by Zepto, Palicha said his genuine intention is to build a startup ecosystem together in good faith and build world-class products for Indian consumers.

"His words were that quick commerce was burning 5,000 crores per quarter of which 'substantially more than half of this is by Zepto'-- implying that we are losing substantially more than 2,500 crores per quarter.

"This statement is verifiably untrue and it will be clear when we publicly file our financial statements," he wrote.

Palicha however added that he believes Goyal has "only good intentions" and his statement may have been taken out of context.

Palicha said he was aged 5 when Goyal started Zomato.

Goyal has become a role model for the Indian startup ecosystem, and it's a privilege to learn from and compete with Zomato, he said.

The Mumbai-based firm reduced its absolute losses, with PAT (profit after tax) as a percentage of revenue improving from -63 per cent in FY23 to -28 per cent in FY24, as shared by Palicha in December 2024. PTI