Until such a time a HBS Case Study on Zepto is wrought, here's a bunch of MBA speak which may answer this:
1. There's always room for more companies than one may think. Oft times, the markets are too huge for a single player to dominate.
2. Addressing an adjacent market is a great way to take on the incumbents, who may or may not be able to match your unique innovation. This has the dual advantage of upending existing market and unlocking a bigger one, in tandem.
3. VCs may invest in promising companies competing against bets they missed out on. Besides FOMO, VCs also tend to value growth. Demonstrate an appetite for that, and with the right amount of luck and momentum, everything tends to fall in place.
---
Regarding Zepto (aka KiranaKart), I have no inside knowledge, but their key selling point is they've figured out a way to deliver groceries in 10mins (!) with a sustainable business model in the 6 months they've been stealthily operating in Mumbai, the most dense, expensive, and biggest metropolis in India. In short, they've demonstrated the ability to create, deliver, and harness their innovation. Now it is all about doing so in a repeatable (sales), scalable (markets), valuable (moat), and predictable (revenue) manner.
> they've figured out a way to deliver groceries in 10mins (!) with a sustainable business model in the 6 months they've been stealthily operating in Mumbai
I dunno man, smells fishy. I never understood how the whole 10mins delivery thing could work economically, much less in a place with low purchasing power like India. Or maybe its just a sign that wealth inequality is rife in Mumbai such that people are willing to pay enough of a premium to cover low cost labor that makes it profitable. Maybe thats also why I'm not a billionaire yet.
Their competition is also doing sub 20 minute deliveries!
> Foodtech unicorns Zomato and Swiggy have entered this space with 10 minute delivery in select cities. On August 17, Zomato-backed Grofers announced 10-minute deliveries in 10 Indian cities.
> Hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo has also launched its under 19-minute delivery in Bengaluru. Swiggy's Instamart continues to create 'dark (online orders only) stores' with partners in areas of operations to execute more control over their grocery inventory, as it begins 15-to-30-minute deliveries on the platform.
The secret seems to be in leveraging "Kirana stores". There's at least 10 stores in 1km radius from where I am. This is usually the case in most residential centres in urban India. The bigger problem isn't delivery and pricing, it is inventory and scale.
What's working in their favour is that most Kirana store owners use a smartphone already and have access to free/cheap internet. This could be leveraged in an Uber-style just-in-time order fulfillment. Another interesting ripple-effect could be that households turn into warehouses / dark store-fronts: Kind of like Airbnb for Grocery (everyone's a grocerer!). There's already a precedent in India of households taking to social-commerce (where goods are sold online on WhatsApp / Instagram / marketplaces like Meesho to their followers or social circle, without any store front).
1. There's always room for more companies than one may think. Oft times, the markets are too huge for a single player to dominate.
2. Addressing an adjacent market is a great way to take on the incumbents, who may or may not be able to match your unique innovation. This has the dual advantage of upending existing market and unlocking a bigger one, in tandem.
3. VCs may invest in promising companies competing against bets they missed out on. Besides FOMO, VCs also tend to value growth. Demonstrate an appetite for that, and with the right amount of luck and momentum, everything tends to fall in place.
---
Regarding Zepto (aka KiranaKart), I have no inside knowledge, but their key selling point is they've figured out a way to deliver groceries in 10mins (!) with a sustainable business model in the 6 months they've been stealthily operating in Mumbai, the most dense, expensive, and biggest metropolis in India. In short, they've demonstrated the ability to create, deliver, and harness their innovation. Now it is all about doing so in a repeatable (sales), scalable (markets), valuable (moat), and predictable (revenue) manner.