10-minute delivery company Zepto may enter online pharmacy business

NEW DELHI: Instant grocery startup Zepto may foray into the online pharmacy space, which would pit the ninemonth old company against the likes of Tata’s 1mg, Reliance’s Netmeds and Pharmeasy. The development comes even as the Mumbai-headquartered 10-minute delivery app is planning to scale up the pilot of its “cafe” business that allows Zepto users to order hot tea and coffee along with snacks.
“It’s probably a category we will be excited about in the future,” Aadit Palicha, founder at Zepto, told TOI.“There will be a lot of innovation that will need to be done in the space. This is something we will focus on in the medium to long term and probably not in the short term.”
Started by two 19-year-old Stanford dropouts, Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, Zepto operates in India’s booming quick commerce space and competes with well-entrenched rivals such as Swiggy’s Instamart, Reliance-backed Dunzo, Tata’s Big Bazaar and Zomato’s Blinkit.
“In Mumbai, we piloted the ‘cafe’ business with exciting levels of success. New categories such as these are margin drivers for the business. The margin structures we are seeing in those categories are phenomenal,” said Palicha.