Aadit Palicha Alleges ‘Smear Campaign’ By Rival’s Top Executive

Zepto cofounder and chief executive Aadit Palicha has accused the chief financial officer (CFO) of a rival quick commerce company of running a “smear campaign” against the unicorn over the past few days.

Without naming the company or the person, Palicha said in a LinkedIn post, “Over the past few days, the CFO of one of our competitors has been trying to build a smear campaign against Zepto.”

He further alleged that the CFO has been “calling up Zepto investors to make wild allegations with no empirical evidence and paying bots on social media to spread a negative narrative.”

“Candidly, this episode is below the stature expected of the CFO of a high-quality company, and makes it obvious that they are starting to get nervous about how fast Zepto’s EBITDA is improving,” Palicha wrote on the post. 

He further said that Zepto has grown 220% to INR 2,400 Cr of gross order value (GOV) per month in May 2025 from INR 750 Cr of GOV in the same month last year. 

Palicha claimed that the startup’s EBITDA has improved by 2,000 basis points between January and May this year, adding that the cash burn has been down around 65% over that same period.

“At the same time, even as our EBITDA improved sharply from January 2025 to May 2025, we have still grown roughly 20% in GOV in that period. That represents an average 4% to 5% month-on-month growth,”

“As of the beginning of this quarter, we have approximately INR 7,445 Cr of net cash in the bank (fully reconciled to bank statements). With our current cash burn trajectory, we have many years of runway,” said Palicha, adding that Zepto is not planning a large-scale rationalisation of stores. “On the contrary, we are ramping up store launches.”

“We have an excellent finance and controllership team with best-in-class H2H payment practices, vendor reconciliations, asset verification activities, internal audit systems and a rigorous Big 4 statutory audit record and Financial Due Diligence record with no material qualifications or variations,” he said. 

On the financial front, Zepto’s net loss declined 2% to INR 1,248.64 Cr in FY24 from INR 1,271.84 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Operating revenue grew 120% to INR 4,454 Cr during the year under review from INR 2,025.70 Cr in FY23.

Palicha’s allegation against rival company’s top executive comes at a time when the Bengaluru-based startup’s quick food delivery vertical Zepto Cafe has temporarily shut operations across multiple cities, including Agra, Chandigarh, Meerut, Mohali and Amritsar to address supply chain challenges. Besides, the startup also plans to reduce its workforce at many cafes. 

Meanwhile, Zepto’s delivery executives in Hyderabad are on an indefinite strike, protesting against the company’s decision to slash delivery fees.

Last week, Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union (TGPWU) president Shaik Salauddin told Inc42 that Zepto decreased its per delivery fee from INR 35 per order in April this year to INR 10 to INR 12 per order in May. “The managers in Hyderabad have told us that Zepto won’t be increasing the fees,” he added.

Despite facing multiple headwinds, Zepto is gearing up to get listed on bourses. Earlier this year, the startup shifted its domicile from Singapore to India and last month, it changed its legal name to Zepto Private Limited.