Aadit Palicha claims rival CFO running smear campaign to harm Zepto

Zepto co-founder Aadit Palicha has alleged that the chief financial officer (CFO) of a rival firm is running a smear campaign to cause damage to Zepto, the brand and the company. 

Aadit Palicha opens up about rival CFO's 'wild allegations' about Zepto

Without taking any names, Palicha said, “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.” [Source: Financial Express]

He also claimed that the CFO has been calling Zepto’s investors and making “wild allegations about us with no empirical evidence, giving out false numbers/Excel sheets on Zepto through sources known to journalists, and paying bots on social media to spread a negative narrative.”

Currently, Zepto competes with Eternal-owned Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart.

Palicha claimed that Zepto's GOV has grown from approximately 750 crore in May 2024 to 2,400 crore in May 2025. He clarified that Zepto’s definition of GOV includes fruits and vegetables at the selling price and ad revenue.

He also said that Zepto’s EBITDA has risen by 20 absolute percentage points (2,000 basis points) from January 2025 to May 2025, and is approaching single-digit territory. “Our cash burn is down approximately 65 per cent over that same period,” he added. 

As of the beginning of this quarter, the quick commerce company has approximately Rs 7,445 crore of net cash in the bank (fully reconciled to bank statements), and with the company’s current cash burn trajectory, Aadit Palicha said, “we have many years of runway”.

“My hope is this CFO in question stops this activity. I’m okay with healthy/aggressive competitive talk, but lies are not acceptable. Frankly, these calls from you are only making it clearer to the investor community that we are a strong competitor. It’s best for all of us to simply focus on execution,” Palicha concluded.

Incidentally,  Zepto has paused its Zepto Café services in over seven North Indian cities because of a supply shortage and employee unavailability, according to media reports.

Also read: Subscription-based grocery startup Otipy shuts down amid cash crunch; impacts 300 employees (startuppedia.in)