Quick commerce is losing money, but investors keep coming

Groceries, yes. Everything else? Not so fast.

Super quick delivery of food and daily essentials is now woven into the daily lives of India’s middle class, and one that investors remain happy to fund despite years of losses.

Image credit: Ulla

But clothes and other items people like to browse for – and frequently return – are proving a harder sell. This trend exposes the limits of quick commerce’s march across the country’s retail landscape.

For the latest reckoning in the sector, look at Zepto. The company was worth US$7 billion six months ago. Last month, it paused its IPO plans and instead went back to investors at a valuation of US$4.5 billion after some domestic mutual funds had reportedly marked it as low as US$3 billion.

The markdown came despite the company’s revenue nearly doubling to US$2.3 billion in FY2026. The problem? Losses were still piling up.

Some might expect numbers like these to unsettle investors. But the money flows, and expansion plans have continued apace.

Quick pharma startup Plazza just raised US$15 million in funding. In June, Peak XV Partners led a US$7.5 million round in BazaarNow, a startup founded by former Zepto executives that is taking quick commerce into India’s tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

Amazon is also aggressively pursuing the sector, expanding its network of dark stores – compact warehouses in urban areas that make ultra-fast delivery possible – from 15 to 300 cities. This was in response to sector-leader Blinkit “eating into its active subscribers’ base,” says an Amazon employee who declined to give their name while discussing business conditions.

From novelty to retail infra

In less than five years, grocery deliveries have gone from a novelty to a minimum expectation for Indians in urban areas. The model has largely failed elsewhere around the world, but it has thrived in the country, propped up by its dense cities and abundant supply of cheap labor.

“Consumers didn’t know that they needed it, but now they cannot not have it,” says an executive at a listed FMCG firm who spoke to Tech in Asia on condition of anonymity.

Photo credit: Shutterstock/ avi_Sharma1030

The executive saw this play out when Blinkit entered Goa, a market with little history of quick commerce. The company expected to have to create the habit from scratch. Instead, it found that many customers had already developed it elsewhere.

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Speed isn’t everything