Online grocery delivery start-up, Zepto, has entered the elite unicorn club. The newest entrant in this rarefied clique, it raised $200 million (Rs 1652 crore) in a Series E funding round that was led by StepStone Group. This is the US-based asset manager's first direct investment in an Indian company. 

With this capital infusion, Zepto's total valuation has gone up to $1.4 billion.

Other investors who participated in the round were Goodwater Capital and its existing investors, Nexus Venture Partners, Glade Brook Capital, and Lachy Groom. Avendus acted as the exclusive financial advisor for this investment.

Zepto is the first start-up to join the coveted league of unicorns in 2023 when many start-ups have been struggling to attract investment in a lengthy funding winter.

Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra founded Zepto in 2021 at the height of the pandemic as a grocery delivery service.The 19-year-olds had previously worked on several projects, including a ride-hailing commute app for school kids, before dropping out of Stanford and taking a plunge with this start-up.

Today, it claims to process over 300,000 orders daily at its delivery hubs in seven Indian cities across India.

Within months of starting operations, it raised $60 million in an institutional financing round led by Glade Brook Capital, at a valuation of $225 million. Nexus, Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital and angel investors Lachy Groom, Neeraj Arora and Manik Gupta also participated in the round

Within two months, Zepto raised a new round of $100 million led by Y-Combinator, which took its valuation to $570 million. "The bulk of this capital will be used to expand our coverage beyond metro cities and expand our team size as quickly as possible," said Aadit Palicha, Co-founder and CEO of Zepto back then.

With the latest financing round, the company is eyeing a public market listing within three years. In May this year, it elevated several key executives in the run-up to its plans for this listing.