Aadit Palicha

Aadit Palicha is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Zepto, an Indian quick-commerce company. He leads the business while co-founder Kaivalya Vohra oversees technology and product.

Journey

Palicha grew up in Dubai and enrolled at Stanford University to study computer science. He and childhood friend Kaivalya Vohra had already experimented with small technology projects before college. During the Covid-19 period, they returned to India and began working on grocery delivery instead of continuing their studies.

Their first serious grocery venture was KiranaKart, launched in 2020. It tried to fulfil online orders through neighbourhood stores. The model gave the founders first-hand experience of inventory gaps, inconsistent fulfilment and the difficulty of promising reliable delivery when the stock was controlled by third-party shops. Rather than continue with the same structure, they moved towards small, company-managed fulfilment centres located close to customers.

That shift became Zepto in 2021. The new business was built around tightly managed local inventory and short delivery times. Palicha concentrated on strategy, fundraising, hiring and execution as the company expanded across large Indian cities. Zepto later added prepared food and beverages through Zepto Café and broadened the range of products available on its platform.

Working approach

Palicha has repeatedly described speed as useful only when it is supported by detailed operating discipline. Zepto’s development also shows a willingness to change the model when early evidence does not support the original plan. The transition from KiranaKart to dark stores was not a separate success after a clean start, but a response to what the founders learned from an approach that did not scale reliably.

Assessment

Palicha’s main contribution has been converting an early grocery-delivery experiment into an integrated quick-commerce network and raising the capital needed to expand it. His record is closely tied to Zepto’s ability to balance rapid growth with fulfilment quality, regulatory compliance and a credible path to profitability.