Zappfresh Gets The IPO Ball Rolling, Turns Into A Public Entity

Delhi NCR-based meat delivery startup Zappfresh has transformed itself into a public company as a step in preparation for its initial public offering (IPO).

In a filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the Deepanshu Manchanda-led startup said that it has converted from a private limited company into a public limited company by dropping the “Private” from its name on record “DSM Fresh Foods Private Limited”. 

With this, the company is looking to list its equity shares on the stock exchanges through an IPO.

“The Board of Directors has approved the decision of adoption of a new set of Articles of Association, in place of and to the exclusion of existing Articles of Association of the company. Board has also approved the amended Memorandum of Association of the Company,” as per Manchanda’s filing accessed by Inc42 read.

The development was first reported by Entrackr.

It is pertinent to note that for any company looking to hit the public market, it is essential to first leave the private moniker behind. One of the most prominent startups to undergo the same pre-IPO route was Swiggy, which turned from ‘Swiggy Private Limited’ to ’Swiggy Limited’ by deletion of the word ‘Private’ last month. 

Zappfresh, which was founded by Deepanshu Manchanda and Shruti Gochhwal in 2015, supplies meat from farms to customers within 90 minutes. It is currently operational in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.

For its IPO, the startup has also proposed increasing its authorised share capital from INR 1.11 Cr to INR 25 Cr. It also announced bonus shares in the ratio of 725 equity shares for every 1 equity shares held by the shareholders. 

Besides, the startup also proposed the appointment of Suman Chaudhary, who is also the director of Navdeep Marketing as an Independent  Director for a term of five years. Further, Manchanda is also proposed to take up the role of chairman and managing director of the Company, effective from May 8, for a period of 5 years. 

The development comes over half a year after the startup last acquired a $4.3 Mn funding from Ah! Ventures, HT Media, Unity SFB and Heifer Impact. At that time, it planned to deploy the funds to fuel acquisitions, expansion plans and infrastructure upgrades.

Although it is yet to disclose its overall revenue for FY24, it was aiming for INR 300 Cr by the end of financial year 2023-24 (FY24), with a revenue target of INR 70 Cr from Bengaluru alone.

It competes with the likes of Licious, Fresh2Home, among others, in the booming D2C meat delivery space. According to a RedSeer report, the online meat market in India is estimated to reach $80-85 Bn by 2024.